Chandigarh University students end protest; varsity declares 'non-teaching days' till Sep 24
Chandigarh (PTI): Students of Chandigarh University in Punjab's Mohali ended their protest in the early hours of Monday after the district administration and police assured them of a fair and transparent investigation into allegations that objectionable videos of several women students had been recorded.
The university on Monday suspended two wardens for negligence and also declared "non-teaching days" till September 24.
Further, it formed a joint committee comprising students and senior functionaries to address certain issues pertaining to hostel timings and other demands of the students, sources in the varsity said.
"They (students) ended their protest at around 1:30 am," Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Vivek Sheel Soni said.
He told reporters that a special investigation team headed by a senior police officer will be formed to probe the case.
The university in a tweet said, "We are always with our students, be it their academic aspirations or their safety and well-being. We will leave no stone unturned to live it upto this commitment towards our students."
Protest had rocked the campus on Saturday night over allegations that objectionable videos of several women students were recorded by a hosteller. Some students claimed that the videos were even leaked.
Police, however, had said the woman student appeared to have shared a video of only herself with a 23-year-old man, stated to be her boyfriend, and no objectionable video of any other student was found.
She was arrested from Punjab itself while the man was held in Himachal Pradesh and handed over to the Punjab Police. Officials said the woman's mobile phone has been seized for forensic analysis and added that there was no suicide attempt by any student.
The university authorities had also rejected as "false and baseless" reports that claimed videos of several women students in the hostel were made and leaked on social media and that distraught students had attempted suicide.
The students, however, had accused the university authorities of "suppressing facts" and held a fresh protest on Sunday evening, which continued till late night.
An FIR under Section 354-C (voyeurism) of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act has been registered in the matter and further probe is on, police said.
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4 Indian students among several injured in stabbing attack in Russia
Moscow (PTI): At least six people, including four Indians students, were injured on Saturday in a stabbing attack at a university in Russia's Bashkortostan Republic, media reports and the Indian mission here said.
According to preliminary reports, a teenager armed with a knife entered a dormitory of the State Medical University in Ufa in the Bashkortostan Republic. He attacked the students living there and stabbed several of them, the Interior Ministry said.
“The attacker resisted arrest, during which two police officers were stabbed. Furthermore, the suspect also inflicted bodily harm on himself,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Maj General Irina Volk was quoted as saying by RTVI.com webportal.
Calling it an "unfortunate incident", the Indian Embassy here said, "Several persons including four Indian students have been injured."
The Embassy said it is in touch with the authorities, and officials from the Consulate in Kazan are en route to Ufa to provide assistance to the injured students.
In a release, the Russian Federal Health Ministry said that four people injured in the attack are receiving medical care. One is in serious condition, while three others are in moderate condition, it added.
The attacker, identified as a 15-year-old youth, has also been admitted to a local children's hospital in serious condition, the Baza telegram channel said.
Authorities in Ufa, the capital of the Bashkortostan Republic about 1,200 km east of Moscow, have launched a high-level probe into the incident.
The Baza channel claimed that the attacker belonged to a banned neo-Nazi outfit.
"He belonged to the banned NS/WP neoNazi organisation. During the frenzy of attack, he was shouting nationalist slogans about (the) Holocaust,” it said and shared the photo of a Swastika drawn on a wall with the blood of the victims.
According to eyewitnesses, “there was blood all around,” Ren TV said, showing footage of wounded being taken to hospital by ambulance vans.
