Seven ABVP volunteers detained in Pune

Seven Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists, including two female students, were detained by the police for trying to disrupt human rights activist Binayak Sen’s lecture at the Azam Campus on Saturday morning.

Sen, who is in the city on a two-day tour, was speaking on the topic of ‘people’s struggle for social justice and democratic rights’ at the Azam Campus on Saturday. The function had been jointly organised by the Allana Institute of Management Sciences and non-governmental organisation (NGO) Lokayat.

Even as Sen was going to light the ceremonial lamp, three ABVP volunteers, Ram Satpote, Rashit Sinha and Vishal Purohit, tried to climb the stage shouting slogans like: ‘Chhattisgarh ki galiyan sooni hain, Binayak Sen khooni hain’ and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. The police immediately took the trio into custody.

Later, when Sen was about to complete his speech, four more activists, including two females, again began shouting the same slogans and waved the saffron flag. This action of the foursome scared the other students in the audience, who ran helter-skelter.
Shailendra Dalvi, the state secretary of AVBP who was detained by the police, addressed thr media persons from the police van and said, “Sen is creating Naxal camps in Pune, Nashik and Mumbai. We will interrupt his lectures everywhere.’’

Senior police inspector Sushma Chavan of the Cantonment police station told DNA, “We have detained the seven protesters, which include five college students. We have taken action against them under the relevant sections of Bombay Police Act, 1951. We will release them on Saturday evening.’’