Were anti-Modi students molested outside SRCC?

A group of students who conducted protests against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi outside the Shri Ram College of Commerce on Wednesday, have alleged that they were molested and abused by Modi supporters while police did nothing to help them, reports the Indian Express. The Express report quoted Kopal Pokal, a member of the SFI who was outside the SRCC on Wednesday, as saying: “I don’t think policemen have learnt how to deal with protesters. They need to be gender sensitized. They dragged us from the barricades and took us through a crowd of ABVP members who hurled abuses at us, called us ‘besharam aurat’ and ‘deshdrohi’. Even the police personnel were laughing and jeering at us.” [caption id=“attachment_618529” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] The police have meanwhile registered cases against nine detained students under various sections of the IPC. The Hindu reported that a case has been registered under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code. Leading the protest against Modi were students from the Left-leaning student organisations AISA, AISF, SFI and DSU. Waving black flags and holding placards saying ‘Communal Modi, go back’, ‘strengthen the fight of Gujarat riot victims’, students tried to storm the venue where Modi was supposed to deliver his lecture. Clashes between students and the police grew violent briefly with the police resorting to charging the protesters with batons when the barricade was breached. Police also used water cannons on the students twice.