ABVP man surrenders in Ujjain

New Delhi/Ujjain: Two Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leaders on Wednesday surrendered in connection with the rioting at an Ujjain college.

Vimal Tomar, Madhya Pradesh unit ABVP secretary, who was caught on camera threatening a professor, and union president Shashi Ranjan Akela surrendered in connection with the violence at Madhav Government College on Saturday

The two men have been sent to judicial custody in the case. Akela and Tomar surrendered before the Dewas Gate police, Inspector General of Police Anil Kumar said. Tomar was shown on CNN-IBN abusing and threatening a professor for cancelling union elections.

A professor died and another was severely injured in the College after ABVP activists allegedly beat them up during the rioting.

Twenty-three members of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), a rival of the BJP affiliated ABVP, also surrendered in the case.

A police complaint in the case accuses NSUI activists but no member of the union has been arrested. Five students, believed to be ABVP workers, were arrested for the attack on the professors and later released on bail.

ABVP workers alleged on Saturday that Prof L M Sabharwal, who was beaten to death, were NSUI sympathisers and favoured the union.

Politicians step in

Sabharwal’s death has become a political issue. The Congress blamed the BJP’s ideology for the violence. “True to its claim of being a party with a difference, the party (BJP) has given a new meaning to the concept of Guru Dakshina by the cruel murder by the ABVP activists of a professor,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi.

The BJP strongly condemned the Sabharwal’s death and demanded that the people who attacked him should be brought to book. BJP Spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan had assured that the authorities would find out the people responsible for the attack.

CPIM General Secretary and former student leader Prakash Karat called for firm action against those accused of attacking Sabharwal. “The incident in Ujjain was a shocking thing. Laws of the land have to be brought into play because this is not a normal student union activity and a professor has died as a result,” he said.