RONO HILLS, 18 Oct: A day after RGU Vice Chancellor Prof Saket Kushwaha was assaulted and his office vandalised by members of the Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) Students’ Union (RGUSU) over reintroduction of the prefect system, the RGU Teachers Association, the RGU Employees Association, and the RGU Indigenous Employees Forum vehemently condemned “the physical assault and verbal abuse on the RGU vice chancellor, the SSO, the security personnel and other office staffs, and vandalising of the office of the VC’s secretariat.”
“It (17 October) was a black day in the history of the university. This is a blatant and utter disregard for the highest office of the university,” the organisations said in a joint press statement.
Taking strong cognisance of the incident, the organisations appealed to the authority to take stringent action against the perpetrators of the incident, as per the relevant provisions of the law and the university’s code of the conduct.
The employees of the university have decided to wear black badges as a mark of protest against the incident.
Meanwhile, all activities related to the RGUSU will remain suspended till further orders, as per a notification issued by RGU Registrar Dr NT Rikam.
Early on Tuesday morning, an inspector from the Doimukh police station reportedly beat up two students of RGU’s Tirap hostel.
The incident occurred after the police entered the hostel in search of RGUSU president Hillang Sam, the students said. The ones who were assaulted are third semester sports psychology student Pintu Nongthombam, and first semester MBA student Gebe Riba.
Later, a protest was staged by the students residing in the RGU campus, demanding an apology from the inspector who had assaulted the two students.
Speaking to press persons, the MBA student, Riba, informed that, while he was on the phone with his friend to discuss exam matters, the policemen came and asked him if he was taking any video clip of them, and later beat the student up. The other student informed that he was slapped and his phone was snatched away while he was looking for the contact number of the RGUSU president.
In the evening, a large number of students closed the university’s main gate, not allowing any vehicular movement to and from the campus, and all the residential students and faculty members had to park their vehicles outside the gate and walk inside.
