French student alleges assault by university staff

Jonas Anton Pulendrarasa, a French student at Madras University, was allegedly man-handled by the non-teaching staff during the course of a seminar on disaster management at the institution.The students later protested outside the Vice Chancellor’s office, demanding an apology, and a complaint has also been filed at the Anna Square Police Station.

The student was beaten after he asked a question during the seminar. In a video that went viral, Jonas says, “I walked into the conference and after listening for 20 minutes, I saw a lot of people were bored, most of them were students and very few outsiders. I stood up to ask a question to the panellists. But before I could complete my sentence, a few people came from my left and asked me to sit down. A person with a badge was holding my hand even after I sat down. I asked him not to touch me,’’ says this second year International Relations student. Jonas adds the officials started assaulting him shortly. 

Dr P David Jawahar, Registrar of the Madras University, says, “As a registrar, the student should have come to me with his complaint. He met the VC, who apologised and said that if such an incident had taken place, the student must give it in writing and we can have an inquiry done in this matter. We have not received any complaint and we are not able to proceed,” he says.