Two Madras University students detained in CAA protest

The Chennai police detained two students from the Madras University for participating in a protest march organised by students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on the Beach Road on Tuesday (December 17) morning.

Two students — Karthikeyan from the political science department and Subbiah from the public administration department of Madras University — joined the peaceful protest held by 80 students from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in solidarity with the Jamia University students.

They had been marching towards the Madras University when police officers from Triplicane, who had been posted in the area, took the two students into custody by force. The two officers said that the students had to be taken under custody for interrogation and would be released later in the evening.

Also read: Kamal Haasan slams CAA, says it will make India fit for just one sect

However, the students were not released for the next few hours. Others from the Madras University resumed their protests after the two students’ detention and demanded the release of the two.

“When we approached our registrar about the arrest of the two students, the registrar informed us that the police would release our friends only if we withdraw our protest here,” one of the students protesting in the varsity said.

Students said that they had decided to continue their protests inside their campus until the two detained people were released. Meanwhile, additional police personnel were deployed near the campus as the protests gained momentum.

Also read: Stalin dubs CAA autocratic, says it ‘tramples’ rights of Muslims

Students asked to vacate hostels

In a separate incident on Monday (December 16) night, students from the Central University of Tamil Nadu in Thiruvarur district were asked to vacate their hostels within 24 hours citing winter holidays. However, students claimed that it was a move to prevent them from protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

According to the students, the winter holidays were originally scheduled to begin around December 23. “Since we protested against the CAA on Monday morning, the college management wanted us to leave the hostel within 24 hours. It is difficult for us to get train tickets since most of the students are from the North East and a few others are from various other parts of the country,” said Rafiq, a second-year post-graduate student.

After the students refused to leave the hostel, the university management asked them to give a list of people who would be staying in the hostel until December 20.