College pleads not guilty

Authorities say of 11 arrested for beating up police, nine students are innocent

After 11 students from Spicer College were arrested for beating up two constables on Friday night, college authorities and students now claim they were wrongly implicated by the police. According to them, the two constables Tanaji Mahadu Takle and Naik Balkrishna Shankar Dalvi were beaten up by only three students, while the rest were innocent.

A security guard said the other nine students were playing football in front of him at the time of the incident. "The rest of the students had just finished their football practice session and gone to Maharashtra restaurant to have dinner.

The police walked into the restaurant and picked up all of them thinking they were involved." While the students have been remanded to police custody till tomorrow, college authorities said they were not allowed to meet the arrested students.

'Let the innocent go'
Dr Justus Devadoss, member, president of Spicer Memorial College, said: "Those who have committed the mistake should be punished but those who are innocent should be left alone.

We are therefore trying to provide these students as much legal help as we can so that their life is not ruined. Yesterday, some of the college authorities had gone to meet the students but the police were not helpful," said Dr Devadoss and said they were allowed to meet the students only for a couple of minutes."

Yashpal Singh, a BBA student who lives in the college hostel, said the students had been framed. "We are not able to do anything as there are certain legal hassles involved."

Among the 11 arrested, four students were selected for the university football team and on Friday they were practising for a match.

"We have some of the finest players and what happened with these students is unfortunate," said Dr Devadoss though he refused to comment on whether this particular episode would affect the career of the footballers.
So far, the college authorities haven't decided on whether to take action against the erring students.

However the tension is visible on the campus, as rules and regulations have become stringent since Saturday said students.

Stringent rules
College authorities said that students are not allowed to stay outside or go outside the campus beyond 9.30 pm and strict action would be taken against those who break this rule.u00a0

On the other hand, police maintain all the students were involved in the incident.

API M R Vichare, investigative officer said: "We had received the news from control room that about seven to eights students were fighting among themselves. When the constables tried to stop them, they were attacked.
We then arrested the students and also the owner and two attendants of the nearby restaurant who tried to hide them."