Afzal Guru row: Student alleges JNU denied her fellowship

JNU student Shweta Raj, who was among those suspended for over a month in connection with the controversial Afzal Guru event, today alleged that the university has denied her fellowship claiming she is under suspension. University officials, however, refused to comment on the issue saying they need to check her application for fellowship.

Raj was among the eight students who were placed under suspension by the university pending an enquiry in connection with the event in campus against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

JNU had revoked the suspension on March 11, after a high-level committee probing the issue submitted its report.

“The university officials told me that they have no information about revoking of my suspension and hence my fellowship can’t be disbursed. The varsity has been publically claiming that our suspension has been revoked and we have been allowed to rejoin classes. How is this possible then,” claimed Raj, a PhD scholar at JNU’s Centre for Indian languages.

She maintained that the fellowship amount in question pertains to July 2015-January 2016 period and hence the university should have no grounds to deny that in connection with the February 9 event which happened much later.

The university is yet to decide on the punishment to students in connection with the incident after the probe panel had submitted its report over the controversial incident.

Three students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested in a sedition case over the event.

They are now out on bail.