Agra: Criticising local police for booking 14 university students under sedition charges, Aligarh Muslim University Teachers’ Association (AMUTA) urged the President to take suo motu cognizance of the case and direct the authorities to probe it without any bias.On Wednesday evening, AMUTA passed a unanimous resolution strongly condemning the serious charges of sedition and others levelled against the AMU students. Secretary of the teachers’ body, Prof Najmul Islam, said, “What happened at the university was unfortunate and an apparent attempt to disturb the peaceful and conducive atmosphere of the campus.”Prof Ved Prakash of Hindi department said that “sedition” charges should not be imposed without thorough inquiry. “Such steps have not only tarnished the image of the institution, the future of these student is also at stake,” he said, adding that no evidence of sedition has been found by the police in its preliminary investigation.On Tuesday, some AMU students allegedly had an altercation with the crew of a private news channel and BJP youth wing leaders during a protest against the proposed visit of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi to AMU campus. However, Owaisi did not turn up for the meeting that was called by the students’ union.Meanwhile, one of the 14 AMU students, who were booked under charges of sedition on Tuesday night in connection with the alleged assault on a BJP youth wing worker and crew of a private news channel, claimed that he was in Delhi when the incident occurred.Talking to TOI, former president of AMU Students’ Union, Maskoor Ahmad Usmani, said, “I have been in Delhi for the past three days to support the ongoing students’ protests in Jamia Millia University and have wrongly been named in the FIR.” Usmani added that naming him in the FIR had “exposed the agenda of the local administration and police”.Usmani said that a series of accusations were being made against the university before every election, which was proof of the “decisive and cheap politics of the BJP”.The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by BJP Yuva Morcha district president Mukesh Lodhi, who claimed that anti-national slogans were raised by the accused students on the campus following the altercation.“This is a replication of the JNU case. When right-wing party workers cannot fight the opposition, they come up with sedition charges against them. And here, they named even those who were not present on the campus at all. I request PM Narendra Modi to kindly give tuition classes to Aligarh BJP workers, so that they do their homework next time before filing a complaint of sedition,” Usmani said.Superintendent of police (city) Ashutosh Dwivedi said that the police have registered the FIR on the basis of the complaint. He said charges will be framed on the basis of available evidence and charges will be withdrawn if no evidence is found against them.

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