Yesterday marked one year since Rohith Vemula’s suicide. His family, friends and supporters wanted to commemorate in peace at the University of Hyderabad (UoH). For the Cyberabad Police and university authorities, however, protests spell trouble and protestors are fit only for detention. So, by the end of the evening yesterday, journalists and close to 18 protestors were detained by the police. This included Rohith Vemula’s mother Radhika Vemula. 

Things started unfolding in earnest by the afternoon of Tuesday when Frontline correspondent Kunal Shankar was walking behind a procession of protesters. Shankar was recording the procession on his mobile phone camera, not knowing that he was also being photographed by the campus security guards. 

Within minutes, Shankar was picked up by the local police, taken to Gachibowli police station and detained there. 

After a couple of hours, more people, including Radhika and a Hindustan Times correspondent Sudipto Mondal, were arrested by the police near the UoH gate. For the detainees, the arrests were unexpected and unprovoked.    

University authorities had days before given strict orders to security personnel to stop ‘outsiders’, especially journalists, from entering the campus. The Cyberabad Police was prepared to arrest “trespassers”. 

The police and the university had a High Court order to bank on: The Hyderabad HC, which had heard a plea by Professor Gali Vinod Kumar in April 2016, had prohibited the entry of outsiders who “meddle with peaceful atmosphere of the campus.”  

“We had specific orders from higher officials to detain protesters at the gate so that the agitation does not escalate, creating law and order problems,” a lower rank police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The Cyberabad Police officially later confirmed the detentions made on Tuesday. “19 protesters were picked up on preventive measures by our policemen,” said Vishwa Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Madhapur.   

A few hours before the police used force on peaceful protestors at the UoH gate, Madhapur Assistant Commissioner of Police M Ramana Kumar sat before  Shankar to “interrogate” him.   

“It went on for over 90 minutes. Police wanted to know what I was doing in campus, who invited me and where did I stay last night,” said Shankar. “They tried to intimidate me, showing me CrPc sections that could easily put me in jail if I did not answer their questions. They also showed photographs of me they had clicked while I was following the procession.” 

At the end of the “interrogation”, Shankar asked the police if they were filing a case against him and if he could get copies of FIR and the complaint. 

“They told me that I was not entitled to get such details or copies because they had not formally arrested me!” he said.     

By evening, the Cyberabad Police was defending the detention of the journo. It clarified that an FIR had indeed been registered against Kunal Shankar.   

“A case has been booked against him for house-trespass (448 IPC) and for disobeying an order duly promulgated by public servant (188 IPC) following a complaint from the university authorities. The journalist has violated an HC order that prohibited entry of outsiders into the campus,” said Cyberabad Police commissioner Sandip Shandilya. 

Technically, though, Shankar had not ‘trespassed’ into the campus. “I entered the campus only after completing all formalities on Monday evening. I had signed on the register at the gate, gave my ID proof and gave details of the faculty member I was going to meet. I got access to the campus with the help of a faculty member,” he said.   

Shankar said the university and the police wanted to intimidate the press. “Campus security had been following me for many hours before my detention. The arrest came later. I strongly believe that this is an attempt to intimidate the press by setting me up as example,” he said. 

“The main gate remained closed the whole day. Police and campus security checked each person coming in and going out,” said S Munna, a UoH student.

By evening tensions mounted at the main gate. Students from other colleges and sympathisers flocked to the gate trying to get into the campus to show solidarity with student protestors inside. Rohith’s mother Radhika and his brother Raja also arrived at the gate. They started a peaceful protest demanding entry into the campus. 

“The protesters were peaceful for a long time. After a while, there was a sudden commotion. A police van moved in and cops started forcefully moving the agitators into the van. Radhika and Raja were also pushed into the van. There were scuffles and shouts. The van then took off and we did not know where,” said Amnesty International India’s Rapid response campaigner Makepeace Sitlhou, who witnessed the entire episode.

Sitlhou soon realised the Hindustan Times correspondent Mondal, who was reporting the incident, was missing. “Later, I came to know the police had picked him up along with the protesters,” she said.

At the police station, Mondal stood beside the protestors as ordered by the cops. “I told a cop that I was a journalist and then he let me off. But, another cop came behind me and pushed me into the van along with protesters,” Mondal told this reporter over phone from the police station.

Cyberabad police said the first batch of protesters were picked up when they tried to break the lock of UoH’s main gate and tried to enter. It defended the detention of Mondal. “He was moving with the protestors and was acting like them. So we picked him. An investigation is on. Charges are yet to be filed,” an official from Cyberabad police said. Officials also said it was a ‘preventive detention’ under city police act: “When the situation turned calm at the UoH, all detainees were let off close to midnight.” 

Meanwhile, inside the locked campus, scores of students continued to protest. It was ‘Rohith Shahadath Din’ for them. They demanded that people who were allegedly responsible for the ‘institutional murder’ of Rohith be punished. Slogans of “Jai Bhim” and “Rohith Amar Rahe” rang out from the campus.