HYDERABAD: Protests rocked Hyderabad Central University as students demanded an immediate removal of Vice Chancellor P Appa Rao. Police arrested scores of activists from different students groups at the main gate of the building as they tried to protest the ban on entry of activists, media and others in the campus.
With banners and placards that read 'recall Appa Rao' and 'sack Dattatreya sack Smriti Irani from cabinet', SFI, PDSU and AIDSP activists sat in front of the gate. The protest is in response to the 'chalo HCU' called by the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, an umbrella group of various students' organisations to condemn police excesses on students and continued lockdown of the campus since Appa Rao's return as vice chancellor.
Police beefed security around VC Lodge, the scene of violent protest on March 22, the day when Appa Rao resumed charge as VC after nearly two month long leave. The JAC has been protesting his return on the ground that he has been booked under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. The JAC blames Rao for Vemula's suicide. As many as 25 students and two faculty members were arrested on March 22 during the police crackdown on protesters. They were in jail for a week before being released on bail.
