The students of the University of Delhi who were on hunger strike demanding reopening of campuses were taken into custody by the Delhi Police and detained at the Maurice Nagar Police Station on October 27. The students said that 30 of them were taken to the police station and alleged that the police cracked down on the students and dragged them off the protest site. They also said that there weren't enough women police personnel to take the female students into custody.
The students have been protesting for the opening of campuses under the University of Delhi for the past couple of days and have been on a hunger strike in front of the Arts Faculty. They wanted to meet the Vice-Chancellor Dr Yogesh Singh but no official from the administration had shown up. "The protest site was cleared when not many of us were around early in the morning. The police cracked down on the students and took them into custody and transferred them to the Maurice Nagar Police Station. There weren't many female police officers around to take the women students in. The students were dragged off the protest site," said Sourya Majumder, a student of Sociology and a member of the Collective.
The All India Students' Association (AISA) said that two of their members who were on hunger strike were subjected to violence. The videos from the protest site show the students being dragged off and loaded on to a bus as well. "Two of our comrades, Ayush and Manik who are sitting on indefinite hunger strike, were beaten up ruthlessly and forcefully detained, without any consideration for their critical physical condition. The DU administration has not reached out to us even after 2 days of hunger strike and now they have taken away our democratic space as well. Why is the administration so paranoid of common students? Why is the administration not willing to listen to our Demands? Why universities aren't opening up even when everything else has opened up?" asked Abhigyan, State President of AISA.
The students said that the indefinite hunger strike will now continue at the police station where the students have been detained. "We will not let the voice of students be stifled. We will not let Delhi Police continue with its atrocities against innocent students," said the AISA.
