A 42-year-old mother in Kerala says she discovered through social media that her son had been arrested, along with at least 25 others, from his university in Hyderabad earlier this week.
The woman, a government employee, who did not wish to be identified, broke down as she said she has still not been given any details by the police or by university officials about her 19-year-old son's arrest or condition in jail.
"Shouldn't we be informed officially? Should we get to know things two days later through social media? We kept trying his phone, but couldn't touch base with him or his friends." she said to NDTV.
According to her, on Tuesday evening, her son phoned home to check on his younger sister's board exam. She says the call was cut abruptly. After that, nothing.
The bail hearing of the students - along with that of two professors - has been postponed to Monday, grafting a searing new chapter to the controversy that has besieged Hyderabad Central University since Rohith Vemula, 26, hanged himself in his hostel in January. Lawyers for the students claim that they were beaten up by the police while being moved to prison in vans, and that some Muslim students were called "Pakistanis". When contacted, the police refused to comment on those allegations.
On Tuesday, the students who are now in prison allegedly held Vice Chancellor Appa Rao hostage in his office for six hours and damaged property. They were protesting Mr Rao's return to work. He had proceeded on leave in a gesture of expiation by the university amid angry protests over Mr Vemula's suicide. The PhD student said in his suicide note that nobody should be held responsible for his death; however, a month before that, a wringing note from him to Mr Rao outlined his anguish over allegedly being discriminated against because he was a Dalit.
The students say that despite warnings like that, university officials , acting under pressure from union ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani, took action against Mr Vemula and some of his friends who had been accused of beating up leaders from a rival student group, the ABVP, which is affiliated to the BJP.
The ministers and Mr Rao have denied any wrongdoing.
The Joint Action Committee - a team of students from 14 different on-campus groups- says that the students who were arrested on Tuesday were hit with batons by the police, and that some women students were sexually harassed while being evicted from the Vice Chancellor's office."
"We were threatened with sedition charges if we didn't vacate (the office)," said P Anupama, a Computer Science professor who was part of the demonstration on Tuesday.
Another parent from Kerala, speaking to NDTV, said, "We are not in Syria or Pakistan. It is the duty of the police to inform parents about those who've been arrested. No government, university authorities or faculty members got in touch with us. "
