HCU teachers go on mass leave citing 'human rights violations' in campus

The SC/ST faculty forum and the faculty members of the Hyderabad University went on a mass casual leave on Tuesday, in protest against the unprecedented situation prevailing in the varsity campus arising out of a series of human rights violations following the protests by students on March 22.

In a letter written to the university Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile, the faculty members cited how the police resorted to an unwarranted and disproportionate show of force on the protesting students and neutral bystanders, adding that the university administration made no alternative arrangements to alleviate the distressing situation on the campus.

The faculty members have decided to go on a mass leave against the atrocities done against the students and also against the continued denial of justice to Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula.

Last week, Appa Rao - currently under judicial probe in the Vemula case, returned to campus after a two-month-long leave.

Angry students protested outside his house, broke window panes, smashed doors and the television, while shouting slogans.

They also vandalised his office and there was reportedly, a lot of damage caused. The students were arrested and the university has been under complete lockdown since then.

A city court yesterday granted bail to 25 students and two faculty members who were arrested.

Vemula, 26, had hung himself in his hostel room at the university campus in January, five months after being suspended for allegedly attacking an ABVP leader.