ME News Bureau: Mumbai – The police has denied permission to a summit scheduled to be addressed by Jignesh Mevani, Dalit leader; and Umar Khalid, JNU student leader, and has also, detained students assembled outside a hall in Mumbai for the event.
The number of students and activists apprehended outside the Bhaidas Hall in Vile Parle was not available, according to a police official.
The action followed after denial of permission by the police for the 'All India Students Summit 2018', which was slated to be conducted today, in which Mevani, a recently elected Gujarat MLA; and Khalid, Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University's (JNU) student leader, had speaker slots.
The police denied permission in the wake of protests and bandh in Maharashtra on January 3 following violence on the anniversary celebrations of a battle fought 200 years ago at Bhima Koregaon in Pune on January 1, stated the official.
The president of Chhatra Bharati, the organizer of the event, Datta Daghe, informed that the police has not given permission for the summit. He said, "However, we plan to go ahead with the event.”
He added there was was a massive police presence at the venue and the students were not being allowed entry to it.
The Pune police had earlier said that they had received a complaint against both Mevani and Khalid for their "provocative" speeches at a Pune event on December 31. Both of them had attended the "Elgar Parishad", an event held to observe the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima-Koregaon, at Shaniwar Wada in Pune.
Violence had flared up in Pune district when Dalit groups were celebrating the bicentenary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle in which the forces of the British East India Company had defeated the Peshwa's Army. The violence had also resulted in the death of a youth.
