State probe report biased, alleges Panthers Party

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 28

Extending solidarity with the protesting NIT-Srinagar students at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, Panther Party activists led by Harsh Dev Singh, Balwant Singh Mankotia and Yashpal Kundal staged a demonstration here against the indictment of the non-Kashmiri students by the inquiry officer.

Harsh Dev Singh termed the probe report submitted to the state government by the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, as biased and prejudiced while lambasting the dispensation for showing apathy and indifference towards an explosive issue.

Condemning the police lathicharge on non-Kashmiri students earlier this month, Harsh Dev Singh said that it was shocking and distressing that inquiry findings submitted to the government on April 24 by the ADC had reportedly indicted the outstation students for allegedly vitiating the atmosphere on the NIT campus.

He said the biased report might have a devastating effect on the career of several students against whom two FIRs were slapped by the J&K Police. The first FIR was registered on April 1 under Sections 148 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 427 (mischief), 336 (endangering life of others) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and the second on April 5 under Sections 353 (assault on public servant) and 188 (disobedience to public servant order) of the RPC.

Harsh Dev criticised the NIT authorities for their failure to tackle the situation which made non-Kashmiri students leave Srinagar. He said the impasse was unlikely to end till the students’ demands for hoisting the Tricolour and deployment of CRPF personnel on the campus were accepted.