NEHU Students Protest Illegal Arrest of Union Leader, Slam Armed Police Presence on Campus

Shillong: Students of the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) today took out a protest rally and launched a signature campaign against the recent arrest of NEHUSU president Sandy Sohtun and the unprecedented deployment of armed police forces on the campus of the university.

President of the North Eastern Hill University Students’ Union (NEHUSU) Sandy Sohtun was arrested on Monday for his alleged involvement in the assault of an assistant professor of NEHU’s Hindi department.

“We stand against the illegal militarization of education institutions, especially when used to control or intimidate stakeholders,” “deployment of armed forces in universities under false pretenses undermines the safety and integrity of academic spaces” and “We stand firmly against the abuse of power by law enforcement in the form of illegal arrest” – were messages in the placards displayed by the students during the rally organized by the North Eastern Hill University Students’ Union (NEHUSU), which has also called for an indefinite suspension of classes.

Also read | NEHUSU President Arrested For Assaulting NEHU Assistant Professor

Addressing the students’ community, NEHUSU general secretary Toniho Kharsati said, “We cannot accept the arrest of Sohtun as they have failed to follow proper procedure. Police personnel came to arrest Sohtun when they were in their civil dress. They failed to identify themselves as police and that they came to arrest Sohtun. While arresting Sohtun, they also arrested another student, but later dropped him at Gate V on the pretext that they mistakenly identified him (as one of those involved in the assault incident). This action has made us question whether the police force is for maintaining law and order when they are randomly picking up students and then throwing them halfway.”

He said the NEHUSU, along with the KSU-NEHU Unit has strongly condemned this action by the police adding, “We are not against the police department as police are here to maintain law and order but the issue is when police fail to come in uniform while making the arrest, it raises a lot of questions.”

Referring to the DK Basu Case, Kharsati pointed out that the guidelines have clearly stated that police have to wear uniform while making any arrest and said, “But why have they failed to follow these guidelines (while making the arrest inside the campus of the university)?”

He further slammed the police department, saying, “Just to protect one teacher, you deploy over 100 plus police personnel and CRPF. This case is just a mere allegation, as till now, police are still investigating, so what is the need of giving a special reference? Moreover, the deployment of forces was done without the consent of the authorities of the university. They just came and started arresting students and conducting patrols in the hostels.”

Also read | NEHU Vice Chancellor Calls For Peace, Proposes ‘Reconciliation Committee’

Also criticising the state government, Kharsati said, “When we sought the state government’s intervention into the ongoing crisis in NEHU, the response was beyond the jurisdiction of the government and now, how come it has ordered deployment of armed police without the consent of the authorities of the university. We strongly condemned this action as it is not at all acceptable.”

“We are willing to cooperate. If you want to investigate, we are ready to give you our full cooperation, but we cannot accept this action of coming into our university and arresting our students. We will resist as NEHUSU. If police are stationed in the university, we will not call off our indefinite suspension of classes as a mark of protest against the interference of the Police department,” he added further.

(Newmai News Network)