A group of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad members allegedly assaulted the proctorial board staff and teachers at St Andrew’s College in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday.
The alleged incident took place on Wednesday when the ABVP members barged into the college’s office.
The college is run by the Lucknow Diocese of the Church of North India. Its principal JK Lal has reportedly submitted a complaint to the police against Saurabh Kumar Gaur, the general secretary of the ABVP’s Gorakhpur unit, and 40 unidentified workers of the organisation. Lal has accused the ABVP members of damaging college property.
The ABVP is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student wing.
The student organisation allegedly assaulted the college’s staff when they prevented them from meeting the principal, according to the Hindustan Times. The ABVP has accused the principal of corruption by charging money for direct admissions to graduate and post-graduate courses. According to the complaint, the ABVP workers barged into the campus to hand over a memorandum in connection with the allegations.
“The staff told them that a delegation of only five to six people can be allowed to meet the principal,” Lal told National Herald. “This infuriated them and they started assaulting members of the proctorial board. They even beat up non-teaching staff.”
The college administration said it has submitted closed-circuit television footage of the incident to the police, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, Governor Ram Naik and the vice chancellor of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, to which the college is affiliated.
ABVP has, however, denied the allegations and said they held a peaceful protest. “The college staff tried to interrupt the peaceful protest by ABVP workers and clashed with them,” ABVP media chief Prakash Aditya Pandey told the Hindustan Times.
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