Three SFI Student Leaders Beaten Up in Police Custody in Rajasthan

The repression of students continues in Rajasthan. On August 27, three students of the Student's Federation of India (SFI) were picked up by the Alwar Police on false charges and were beaten up in police custody. It was only after the court’s intervention that one of the SFI leaders Pankaj Sawariya was taken for medical examination. His medical report revealed that he had sustained nine injuries, all of which were from custodial torture.

The charges of hindering states work were levelled against all the student leaders. After this act of police repression, the SFI state committee met the DJP and he assured them of stern action against the people involved. Golu Patel, one of the three SFI leaders was released on bail. But the other two, Pankaj Sawariya and Shoaib Akhtar still remain in police custody till now. After the incident, the committee met senior police officers and addressed their concerns about the illegal police action. On September 6, Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s secretary of Alwar district, Raisa, held a press conference in relation to the incident. In the conference, she said that on August 27, SFI activists were protesting against the inaction of the university authorities to implement the recommendations of the Lyngdoh to the committee, when they were arrested.

It should be noted that these SFI leaders have been struggling in the region against the violation of Lyngdoh committee recommendations. During the university elections, these students were in the forefront of exposing student’s leaders who were violating the the same. They had made a report of such student leaders who used excess money and muscle power in the elections and presented it to the principles of the colleges and the administration. But when nothing was done in the matter they decided to protest in front of the huge hoardings of students, demanding their removal. This was when three to four policemen came in civil dresses, picked them up and beat them in custody.

This is not the first time that police repression as happened in the region. In 2014 after winning the elections in BR Arts college, the student leaders were not given keys of the student council's office. When the students protested against this dictate, false cases were levelled against 12 of the protesting students. In 2016, students had accused the administration of helping a student candidate who was a relative of a district leader. Twenty students were again charged with false cases when they protested against this act.

SFI Rajasthan’ s state committee member Pawan Beniwal has said that all these incidents are happening in a pre-planned way and the local BJP MLA is behind these incidents. He also added that these incidents should be seen in the context of BJP’s effort to suppress the voices of dissent in the state.