A day after a state-wide bandh called by Dalit leaders in Maharashtra, the Mumbai Police today cancelled an All India National Students' Summit at Vile Parle organised by Chhatra Bharati, a students’ outfit.
Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and JNU student Umar Khalid were supposed to address the students at the event.
Soon after hundreds of students were detained by the Mumbai Police, Sachin Bansode, organizer of the Chatra Bharti Sammelan told Outlook, “We were given the notice in the morning, whereas we have been in touch with the Juhu Police regularly. I told them that we will change the speakers but I will have to tell the students who have gathered to listen to them (Jignesh Mevani and Umar Khalid) but the police was not willing to listen at all. They picked me up and then students started protesting. At present at least 700-750 students have been detained in various police stations. Their phones have been taken away, they are unable to reach us. We are requesting the police to at least keep everyone in one place. We had requested them to allow us to carry on the programme without the said speakers but they simply did not listen.”
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According to Bansode, Khalid and Mevani have been invited at this event , and this had been fixed earlier. However, the police allegedly denied entry to the visitors citing "news doing the rounds about Umar Khalid and Jignesh Mewani for the past few days."
Authorities have imposed section 144 of the IPC to prevent people from assembling there.
The police denied permission in the wake of protests and bandh in the state yesterday following violence on the anniversary of a battle fought 200 years ago at Bhima Koregaon in Pune, a senior police official said.
The police has not given permission for the programme, Datta Daghe, the president of Chhatra Bharati, the organiser of the event, told PTI.
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"Despite this we plan to go ahead with the programme. Mevani, Khalid and other invitees are coming after 11 am," he said.
Daghe said there was a huge police presence at the hall and the students were not being allowed to go inside.
Pune Police had earlier said that they had received a complaint against Gujarat MLA and Dalit leader Mevani and Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University's (JNU) student leader Khalid for their "provocative" speeches at an event in Pune on December 31.
Mevani and Khalid had attended the "Elgar Parishad", an event organised to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima-Koregaon, at Shaniwar Wada in Pune.
Tension gripped many parts of Maharashtra after a youth's death on January during an event to mark the bicentenary celebrations of the battle near Pune.
In the aftermath, a day-long 'Maharashtra bandh' was called by various Dalit and other organisations on Wednesday.
The bandh was, however, called off later in the day.
The Battle of Koregaon was fought on January 1, 1818 between the British East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy, at Koregaon Bhima. The Marathas ultimately withdrew, fearing the arrival of a larger British force.
The Company troops of Indian origin included predominantly Mahar Dalit soldiers belonging to the Bombay Native Infantry, and therefore the dalit activists regard the battle as a heroic episode in their history.
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(Inputs from agencies)
