Rohith Vemula suicide: Students go on rampage as HCU VC rejoins work

March 22, 2016

Hyderabad, Mar 22: Ugly scenes were witnessed at the University of Hyderabad on a day when Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile rejoined work after nearly two months on leave.

Vemula

Students, who have been protesting ever since Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula committed suicide inside the varsity campus, vandalised the VC's residence where he was due to address the press in a shortwhile.

TV visuals showed broken furniture, television set etc as students angry over the VC rejoining work went on a rampage.

The development came amid news that Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been booked under sedition over raising of anti-national slogans inside the university, will be visiting Hyderabad Central University on Wednesday.

Professor Appa Rao had in the last week of January proceeded on an indefinite leave in the wake of Rohith's suicide.

Rohith's suicide on the university campus in January had led to protests not just inside the varsity but by students community across the country.

Amid intense pressure, Appa Rao had proceeded on leave on January 24.

Rohith, 26, committed suicide by hanging himself in the Hyderabad Central University campus in January. He was earlier suspended from the university hostel in August last year by the administration for allegedly attacking an ABVP leader.

The university had allegedly stopped giving scholarship to Rohith after the incident which led to financial hardship and culminated in his suicide.

Also in August 2015, Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, in a letter to HRD Minister Smriti Irani, had alleged that the Hyderabad Central University had become “a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics”.

It was alleged that Dattatreya had sought action against research scholars including Rohith.

Appa Rao was slammed for not doing anything to help Rohith.

The police had booked Dattatreya, Appa Rao and two others for ‘abetting’ the suicide of Rohith.

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Agencies
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: The Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) on Friday accused Delhi Police of framing two of its members - Meeran Haider, Safoora Zargar, along with student leader Umar Khalid, as part of "an imaginary conspiracy behind the recent North East Delhi riots".

While Haider was arrested on April 2, Zargar was taken in custody on April 10 for their alleged involvement in fuelling the riots.

"These arrests by the police have little ground, and the charges seem to have no rhyme or reason. Safoora was even granted bail in the case she was initially arrested in, following which she was arrested and had heavier charges placed against her," the JCC said in a statement.

Meeran, Safoora and Umar have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), which allows curbing of fundamental rights in order to protect the sovereignty of India. The JCC, however, claimed that in this case, the Act is being used to suppress their voices.

"This Act has been used against many activists working to protect constitutional morality, a list which now includes members of the JCC, a wholly constitutionalist collective of students and alumni," the JCC said, defending its members.

JCC maintained it had no role in Delhi riots, but apprehended that more people will be arrested by the Delhi Police as part of its conspiracy against students and protestors.

"It is almost certain that more protesters will be framed and arrested in the conspiracy invented by the Delhi Police. JCC reiterates that it played no part in the riots, and this fact will be proved before any court of law," it said in a statement.

It also demanded political parties, and university administration take a stand for the two accused JCC members and student leader Umar Khalid.

The JCC came into existence after a violent face-off between Delhi Police and unruly anti-CAA protestors left Jamia Millia Islamia vandalised. It was after this, that a group of students from the Jamia Millia formed it to decide upon the future course of actions in protest against the CAA and the police action.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 6,2020

New Delhi, May 6: The government on Wednesday said no data or security breach has been identified in Aarogya Setu after an ethical hacker raised concerns about a potential security issue in the app.

The app is the government's mobile application for contact tracing and disseminating medical advisories to users in order to contain the spread of coronavirus.

On Tuesday, a French hacker and cyber security expert Elliot Alderson had claimed that "a security issue has been found" in the app and that "privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake".

Dismissing the claims, the government said "no personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk by this ethical hacker".

"We are continuously testing and upgrading our systems. Team Aarogya Setu assures everyone that no data or security breach has been identified," the government said through the app’s Twitter handle.

The tweet gave point-by-point clarification on the red flags raised by the hacker.

"We discussed with the hacker and were made aware of the following... the app fetches user location on a few occasions," it said, but added that this was by design and is clearly detailed in the privacy policy.

The app fetches users’ location and stores on the server in a secure, encrypted, anonymised manner - at the time of registration, at the time of self assessment, when users submit their contact tracing data voluntary through the app or when it fetches the contact tracing data of users after they have turned COVID-19 positive, it said.

On another issue that users can get COVID-19 stats displayed on the home screen by changing the radius and latitude-longitude using a script, Aarogya Setu said that all this information is already public for all locations and hence does not compromise on any personal or sensitive data.

"We thank the ethical hacker on engaging with us. We encourage any users who identify a vulnerability to inform us immediately...," it said.

Responding to Aarogya Setu's clarification, Alderson tweeted, "I will come back to you tomorrow".

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: India recorded 19,459 new coronavirus cases and 380 deaths in the last 24 hours.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday, the total coronavirus cases in the country stands at 5,48,318 including 2,10,120 active cases, 3,21,723 cured/discharged/migrated and 16,475 deaths.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 count touched 1,64,626 and cases in Delhi have reached 83,077.

The total number of samples tested up to 28 June is 83,98,362 of which 1,70,560 samples were tested yesterday, as per the data provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). 

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