SFI protests at Delhi LG's residence over expulsion of Ambedkar University students

New Delhi, Sep 29 (PTI) The Students' Federation of India (SFI) on Monday protested outside the residence of Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena over expulsion of five Dr BR Ambedkar University students.

Saxena is the Chancellor of the varsity.

According to an official statement from the left-affiliated student body, Sharanya, AUD Student Council Treasurer, Shubhojeet, AUD Student Council Councillor, and Shefali, SFI Delhi State Committee member, were expelled.

Two more, Ajay and Keerthana, were debarred from re-admission.

Earlier, Nadia, pursuing her master's and also an SFI member, received an expulsion notice.

Shefali, one of the expelled students, said, "Three students from SFI had exposed a case of cyber-bullying in the Karampura campus of AUD in February, following which they had been suspended for a year. In April, a lot of SFI activists had called an indefinite hunger strike in the Kashmere Gate campus regarding the same." Shubhojeet said that five of them were originally suspended for speaking against an instance of ragging, which, he claimed, had almost led to an incident of suicide of a student of AUD.

"The administration proceeded to take alarmingly unreasonable action against us who were merely seeking help from the institution to adequately redress the situation," he said.

Sharanya said that despite orders from the Delhi High Court for the University to conduct hearings, the institution has continued to resort to "disproportionate mob justice." "In the course of seeking justice, women students have had to face physical beatings, and groping at the hands of the Administration," she said.

Shubhojeet said the outfit on Monday submitted a memorandum to Saxena, appealing to him to step in and help nullify the order.

"We will be approaching the high court again and file a petition for the reversal of this decision. We are also ready to approach the Supreme Court to defend the students' fundamental rights," he said.

A university official said that pending the inquiry, the students had approached the high court.

The court had directed the university to wrap up the internal inquiry and pronounce its decision by September 26. PTI MHS VN VN