JNU students remember former union Prez who was killed in 1997

JNU students today remembered former students union president Chandrashekhar Prasad who was gunned down in Siwan on this day in 1997 while addressing a strike gathering.
Prasad, fondly called "Chandu" on campus, was elected as the students union Vice President and the President for two successive terms.
He was shot dead in broad day light on March 31, 1997 allegedly by CPI(ML) leader Shyam Narayan Yadav, former Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentarian Mohd Shahabuddin, among others while he was addressing a strike gathering called by his party Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
In 2012, 15 years after the killing of Chandu, Shyam Narayan Yadav and a cart puller called Bhatti Mian, Dhruv Kumar Jaiswal, Sheikh Munna and Illyas Warsi were sentenced to life imprisonment. The All India Students Association (AISA) has been protesting since then for not charge-sheeting Shahabuddin in the murder.

"Comrade Chandu was assassinated on this day. Carrying forward his legacy, JNU students have risen up to resist the attack on our universities today. The fascist attack which was seen in Hyderabad University and then JNU has now reached the Jharkhand University," JNUSU Vice President Shehla Rashid Shora said, who was in Patna today for addressing a gathering in remembrance of Chandu.
Similar gatherings were organised across the county by AISA.

Commemorating his "20th martyrdom day" JNU students have organised the annual Chandrashekhar memorial lecture tomorrow which will be delivered by CPI(ML) MLA from Bihar Sudama Prasad. His talk will be followed by a lecture by Pranay Krishna, former JNUSU president.

The venue for the memorial lecture has been kept at the university's administration block which has been the centre of protests in connection with a row over an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
Parallels have been drawn between Chandu and current president Kanhaiya Kumar who was arrested in a sedition case over the event.
JNU students had also made a documentary "Ek Minute ka Maun" pieced together through various video recordings and personal anecdotes shared by Chandu's friends in the 90s.