Protest in Parliament over Mangalore University Student Writing Exam in Chains
New Delhi, May 5 (DHNS): The Parliament on Friday witnessed spirited protests over the arrest of a tribal youth from the Dakshina Kannada district who recently wrote examination in handcuffs.
Vittal Malekudiya from Kuthluru in Belthangady taluk, a postgraduate student of journalism in Mangalore University and his father were arrested by the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF), Karnataka, on March 2, for their alleged links with the Maoists.
File photos of Vittal writing his exam
With permission from the judge, Malekudiya wrote his examination from jail.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, CPM member M B Rajesh from Palakkad in Kerala said: “It was a grave injustice and blatant violation of human rights.” Rajesh accused ANF of falsely implicating the 21-year-old tribal student and his father.
“This student is a member of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) of which I am an office-bearer,” Rajesh said.
He further told the House that Malekudiya’s father, Ninganna, was assaulted by ANF personnel on March 2. On being informed, the youth rushed back home from Mangalore and took his father to a hospital.
That is when they were arrested, Rajesh said.
False case
"In a bid to avoid charges of atrocities against ANF, they were implicated in a false case of waging war against the state,” Rajesh said, demanding a probe into the matter and punitive action against the guilty.
“As an evidence of the student’s links with the Maoists, they have said in the case that he possessed a Kannada translation of a book by journalist Kuldip Nayar on Bhagat Singh. It is a matter of grave concern that in independent India a person is being put in shame because he has a book on Bhagat Singh,” Rajesh told the House.
The incident has been condemned by all sections of the society. “A leading Kannada daily, Prajavani, wrote an editorial condemning the human right violation by ANF,” he said.