Railway Exam Protest: 8 Students Arrested, Coaching Centre Owners Named in FIR

Police chase the aspirants who blocked railway tracks to protest over alleged erroneous results of Railway Recruitment Boards Non-Technical Popular Categories (RRB NTPC) exam, at the Rajendra Nagar Terminal railway station, in Patna, Monday, 24 January.

Photo: PTI

The Patna Police has arrested eight students, and also named the owners of six coach centres in a First Information Report (FIR) for their alleged role in the protests against the Railway Recruitment Board's (RRB) two-exam policy turned violent in Bihar, The Indian Express reported.

A passenger train was set on fire and another was attacked with stones on Wednesday, 26 January.

The owners of the coaching centres are accused of instigating the students to stage the protests.

The charges in the FIR against the students and the owners include section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and others relating to rioting and assaulting officials.

None of the tutors have been arrested so far.

The tutors have denied the allegations, stating that the protests were spontaneous as several students who were expecting to qualify in the recruitment drive for Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC) failed to get through.

Arrests Criticised by Opposition & Hindustani Awam Morcha

The arrests have been criticised by the Opposition and even the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituent Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM). Morcha head and former chief minister of the state, Jitan Ram Manjhi, cautioned the police against taking any action against the tutors as it could "further provoke protests and violence".

"The government should rather look for ways to deal with the mammoth unemployment," Manjhi said.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said:

"The students' protests showed the failure of the Central government and is a testimony to rising unemployment in the country."

The eight students arrested are among the 16 named in the FIR registered at Patrakar Nagar police station: Kisan Kumar (Giridih, Jharkhand), Rohit Kumar, Rajan Kumar and Vikram Kunar (Lakhisarai, Bihar), Naresh, Ganesh, Vikas, Khesari, Mrityunjay, Baleshwar, Pankaj, Vishal, Suraj, Majnu, Vikas Chhotu and Mukesh (Patna).

The police said all of them were in the age group of 21-25 but could not confirm if they were students of the six coaching centres.

The tutors named in the FIR are - Khan Sir, SK Jha, Navin, Amarnath, Gagan Pratap, and Gopal Verma. Khan Sir became popular on Youtube for his unique style of teaching.

According to the FIR, four of the arrested students told the police that they had watched a video of Khan Sir on social media in which he had said that "if RRB (Railway Recruitment Board) results were not revised, they (coaching centres) would get students to protest".

The FIR further said that several students' statements on social media suggested that coaching centres were upset "at not getting the desired results for their students in RRB NTPC results".

The FIR said that around 400 students had been provoked to create law and order problems at Patna's Rajendra Nagar Railway Station on Monday, 24 January, because of which several trains between Ara and Patna were stalled for almost five hours. The incident led to protests across 12 districts over the next two days.

Khan Sir Denies Charges

Meanwhile, Khan Sir, who is from Gorakhpur and runs the GS Research Centre in the Old Patna area, denied the charges.

"We can never back students who take to violent protests. Whatever happened was a natural reaction. During the time of filling up forms for Group D examinations, the students were not told that there would be two examinations. Second, RRB followed a new post-students ratio instead of the previous system. Coaching centres cannot influence 1.25 crore examinees across the country," he said while speaking to reporters.

Patna DM Meets Coaching Centre Owners

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manavjit Singh Dhillon told The Indian Express that they had booked six coaching centre owners/tutors for provoking students.

Chandrashekhar Singh, the district magistrate of Patna, met the owners of the coaching centres and said that the police would examine all social media videos and posts by the teachers.

AISA, Other Youth Organisations Call For Bharat Bandh on Friday

Meanwhile, the All India Students Association (AISA) termed the high-power committee formed by the Union Railway Ministry to look into the concerns and doubts raised by the aspirants as a hoax, reported ANI.

AISA and other youth organisations have called for a Bharat Bandh on Friday, 28 January, and have refused to bog down despite the committee's formation, reported ANI.

AISA general secretary and MLA Sandeep Saurav, along with others, issued a press statement in which they said that the committee formed by the ministry was a conspiracy to postpone the matter until the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.

"There is no doubt on the questions being raised by the candidates. This massive movement of student youth, who are facing extreme unemployment, has arisen at a time when there is an election in UP. Under the pressure of this, this proposal of the Government and Railways has come, and a conspiracy is being hatched to postpone the matter till the elections," they said.

(With inputs from The Indian Express and ANI.)