Afzal Guru row punishment: JNU students to conduct march, launch hunger strike today

New Delhi: Students at Jawaharlal Nehru University will on Wednesday carry out a march from Ganga Dhaba to the administrative block in the varsity, two days after the JNU's high level enquiry committee fined Kanhaiya Kumar and rusticated three students for taking part in an event on February 9 to commemorate executed Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

An indefinite hunger strike will be launched after the march today.

On Tuesday, JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar said that the students community will neither accept nor follow the punishment handed over to them by the varsity's high level enquiry committee (HLEC).

"We do not consider the High Level Enquiry Committee (to be fair).... This is an undemocratic and casteist committee. So subsequently we are not going to consider its recommendations as well," he said.

The HLEC was constituted on February 11.

While Kanhaiya was fined Rs 10,000, Anirban Bhattacharya was rusticated till July 15 and barred from the university from July 25 for five years. He can submit his PhD during the July 15-25 period.

Bhattacharya and Umar Khalid will lose a semester of their academic session while Mujeeb Gattoo, another student, has been suspended for two semesters, an order from the university proctor said. Khalid also must cough up Rs 20,000 in fine by May 13.

Ten other students were also fined varying amounts, including one from the ABVP on charges of obstructing traffic in the campus.

"Students, who have been found guilty by the committee for their involvement in the February 9 incident, will not be accepting the punishment handed to them nor will they be paying the fine," Kanhaiya said.

The university administration had given a deadline till May 13 to pay the fine, failing to which the students will be deprived of hostel privileges.

A delegation of JNU teachers association will be meeting the vice chancellor to discuss on the matter of HLEC report.

Later in the day, the JNUSU members including Kanhaiya, vice president Shehla Rashid, general secretary Rama Nagar, along with other students burnt the copy of the HLEC report.

(With IANS inputs)