The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya have dropped sedition charges slapped against 13 Saket PG College students there for raising “azaadi [freedom]” slogans on December 16 during a protest demanding that students’ union polls be held.
“After an investigation into sedition charges, they have been dropped against students as no evidence was found to substantiate them,” said Ashutosh Mishra, Ayodhya’s Kotwali police station in charge.
ND Pandey, the college principal, lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against the students on December 23. Mishra also lodged an FIR against six more students.
The protesting students also allegedly incited three of them to kill themselves after they climbed atop the college’s rooftop. They had been booked under the Indian Penal Code’s Sections 124A (sedition), 147 (rioting), 353 (assault on public servant), 427 (causing damage to property), 506 (criminal intimidation).
The college management has since announced the students’ union polls on February 10.
