Tension prevailed on the Panjab University campus on Tuesday as students, protesting the fee hike for various courses, clashed with the police.
Police sources said Panjab University students protesting against the recent fee hike were charged with sedition and other criminal offences after they clashed with the local police on Tuesday, leaving over 60 students, cops and journalists injured — at least four of them critical — on the campus.
It is for the first time in PU that students have been charged with sedition after a clash.
The protesting students pelted stones at the police and broke window panes of the offices and damaged other university property.
At least 22 policemen, an equal number of students and five mediapersons were reported to have sustained injuries and had to be rushed to hospitals.
However, several injured students took self-medication, went to private clinics or were discharged after first-aid. Fifty-two students were taken in police custody, out of 66 named in the FIR.
Later, a few students, who were being chased by the police, entered a gurdwara on the campus and took refugee there. The impasse ended after students turned themselves in and were arrested by police.
The fee hike, set to come into effect from the 2017-18 academic session, is said to be necessitated in the wake of a financial crisis being faced by Panjab University, which has led to up to 1,100 per cent increase in fee of some courses.
In some courses, the fee hike was steep. In the B Pharma course, the fee was raised from Rs 5,080 to Rs 50,000 and in MA (journalism) course, the fee was hiked from Rs 5,290 to Rs 30,000. For PU's dental course, the fees was increased from Rs 86,400 to Rs 1.5 lakh.
A case under Sections 124-A (sedition), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, has been registered against the accused at Sector 11 police station.
Teaching was affected in several departments on the Sector 14 campus of the university due to the protest shutdown called by the students.
The fee hike was being opposed by the Students for Society (SFS) and other student organisations.
