Lucknow: Thirteen students from Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow University were issued notices on Tuesday, February 24, for offering prayers and protesting outside the Lal Baradari mosque on the campus, after the administration sealed its entrance.
The notices were issued following a report by Sub-Inspector Ashwini Kumar Mishra from the Hasanganj Police Station on Monday, February 23, which stated that the prayers had created a tense situation on the university campus. It created potential for communal tension and a breach of public peace, it said.
As the Muslim students had offered namaz outside the Lal Baradari, the Hindu students, in a show of unity, formed a human chain to help them continue their prayers and break their fasts during Ramzan.
Lal Baradari, once home to a bank and a canteen, has stood abandoned since 2017–18 after its condition worsened. Yet, in spite of entry restrictions, students were said to be frequenting the building. The Mughal-era structure was fenced by the university administration in the presence of police personnel.
According to the SI, the students deliberately stopped the construction work of the mosque. “In the University, sloganeering and a protest demonstration were conducted by sitting on the road in front of the Divyang Canteen, and an attempt was made by students to offer Namaz in a public place, due to which tension prevails as a full possibility of breaching peace and order and spoiling social harmony has arisen,” the report read.
Students asked to submit sureties of Rs 50,000
Citing the above reasons, the Sub-Inspector requested the magistrate to summon the students and bind them with a bail bond of “the heaviest possible amount.”
The students were thus issued a show-cause notice and were required to submit a personal bond of Rs 500 and two sureties of Rs 50,000 each to guarantee the maintenance of peace and order for one year.
The students to whom the notices were issued were Prince Prakash, Ahmed Raza, Shubham Kharwar, Taukir Ghazi, Navneet Yadav, Prem Prakash Yadav, Shivaji Yadav, Prasann Shukla, Prince Kumar, Akshay Kumar Verma, Abhishek Srivastava, Kanchi Singh and Mohammad Ayaz Hasan.
Shubman Kharwar, a student named as a respondent in the challan, said they will continue to stage a dharna against the closure of the gates of Lal Baradari.
When asked why they issued a notice against him, he told news agency ANI, “Our Muslim brothers were not allowed to pray inside the Lal Baradari mosque; they were forced to pray outside. All the Hindu brothers had formed a chain in unity, the same unity which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot digest. And this is why the challan was registered.”
The challan report was registered under sections 126 (security for keeping peace in other cases), 130 (formal show cause notice), and 135 (inquiry into truth of information) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS)
ABVP cadre chant Hanuman Chalisa at university
Police detained several people after tensions flared on Tuesday at Lucknow University when Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students sought to confront the recent offering of namaz by reciting Hanuman Chalisa near the Laal Baradari mosque on the campus.
According to officials, the ABVP activists assembled near the mosque and raised slogans of “Jai Shri Ram,” while moving in groups inside the campus.
Visuals showed police repeatedly stopping the protesters from advancing further.
The ABVP cadre later sat on a road in front of the mosque and began reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, demanding “shuddhikaran” (purification) of the place where namaz was offered.
An ABVP office-bearer earlier warned that if namaz was allowed inside the university campus, they too would chant the Hanuman Chalisa there.
Police presence remained heavy on the campus to prevent any escalation, officials said. Visuals also showed groups of youths marching inside the university premises and being stopped by security personnel at multiple points.
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