Police said more than 50 people were detained or booked after clashes broke out between cadres of two student organisations in a Pune University hostel Friday night. The clash came a day before Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to hold a public interaction with students in the city.
The students ran into each other at the College of Engineering Pune hostel, Shivajinagar, where groups belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) reportedly took to fighting. Extra policemen were rushed to the hostel once the news reached the police.
Pune police registered a case against 50 to 60 Youth Congress workers based on a complaint lodged by an ABVP member to an official. The complainant said that the Congress workers allegedly forced some of the women students to register for Gandhi’s lecture and later manhandled the student leaders who reached the hostel intending to take stock of the situation.
Congress leaders rejected claims that their party men forced the women students, adding that as many as two of the students were asking the university management questions about their scholarship and backing the Gandhi programme. Senior Congress leader,Vijay Wadettiwar, meanwhile alleged that the students were being threatened by members of the ABVP.
Gandhi is supposed to have met the student fraternity on Saturday at the lecture here. Police said further investigation was underway.
