Delhi Police registers FIR over 'defacement of public property' in JNU

Acting upon the complaint filed by JNU professor Buddha Singh over "defacement of public property" at the university, Delhi police on Saturday registered an FIR in connection with the case. This is the first FIR registered by the police in connection with the students' protest against fee hike in the university.

New Delhi:Delhi Police on Saturday registered an FIR in connection with the "defacement of public property" at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). This is the first FIR registered by the police in connection with the students' protest against fee hike in the university.

The complaint was filed by JNU professor Buddha Singh, who is the chairman of the Swami Vivekananda Statue Installation Committee.

"The present complaint is being filed against the acts of vandalism and defacement of Swami Vivekananda's statue committed in the dawn of November 14," he said in the complaint.

The statue at the administration block of the varsity was installed on January 5 this year "to pay homage to Swami Vivekananda and his ideologies", Singh said in the complaint.

A plethora of posters and slogans have come up at the administration block of JNU alleging that the varsity administration had only partially fulfilled their demands and that they will continue protests until all their demands are met.

JNU students have been protesting against the JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, fee hike and the draft hostel manual which also includes provisions on dress code and curfew timings. Slogans proclaiming, ''Reject IHA Manual", "JNU is not your estate" among others were seen on the walls of the administration block.

Meanwhile, the university administration on Saturday had filed a complaint against the alleged vandalism and defacement of Swami Vivekananda's statue.

On November 14, the statue of Swami Vivekananda, which was to be unveiled inside the campus, was found defaced with slogans and graffiti painted on its base by unknown miscreants.

Students of the university, however, have denied their involvement and termed it an act by some miscreants to dilute the movement of JNU Students' Union against the varsity administration over fee hike and hostel manual.

On Friday, the JNU Vice-Chancellor (VC) had appealed to the agitating students to stop their protests.

"The administration has taken an extremely grim view of this condemnable and reprehensible behaviour of the agitating students and their mentors. Let us all appeal to the agitating students, once again, to stop their protests, which have been hampering studies of thousands of students on the campus who are preparing for their end-semester examinations and trying to write their term papers," the VC had said in a statement.