Maharashtra Education Minister Allegedly Orders Arrest Of Student Who Recorded Him Taking A Query

Maharashtra Education minister allegedly ordered for the arrest of a student when he was caught recording a conversation between the minister and another fellow student. This claim has been made by the aggrieved student, Yuvraj Dabad. The minister has refuted from the claims, however, he has drawn flak from many on social media.

Phone confiscated and detained

According to The Hindu, the incident happened when BJP minister Vinod Tawde had gone to inaugurate an elocution competition at a college in Amravati. According to the student Yuvraj Dabad, after the minister’s speech, the students approached him to get his reaction on free higher education policy for the underprivileged.

While talking to the media one of the students, Prashant Rathod said, “I was told by Education Minister Vinod Tawde to start working somewhere if I could not afford the educational expenses.”

He further said that soon after this the minister asked his friend Dabad to turn off the video-recording of the interaction. However, when Dabad refused it, the minister ordered the police to arrest him. “We were simply asking questions to him and seeking his views,” said Dabad, as reported by the NDTV.

Following the minister’s order, Dabad was taken out of the college premises and was then detained by the police for some time. He further claimed that his taken from him and was later returned after deleting all the videos from the phone.

Minister calls it fake claim

However, the minister has refuted these claims. He said, “It is some sort of a lie that is being spread against me. I did not order the arrest of any student in Amravati.” He claimed that he had a good interaction with the students that lasted for two-and-a-half-hours.

While calling the students allegation baseless, the minister added that that the students, who are accusing him of ordering there arrest met him outside the hall and tried asking him questions. The minister said that the students are spreading lies about the minister.

“Some of those students also came with pamphlets with ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ written on them and distributed them among the other students. They were the ones who alleged that I ordered the arrest. It is completely false,” he said.

According to the Amravati Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Baviskar no student was arrested nor detained. He also said that students handset was also not taken and nothing was deleted from anyone’s phone.
The incident has received a lot of criticism from a lot of people over the social media.

Maharashtra Education Min Vinod Tawde asked the police to arrest a student filming an interaction, where he suggested that poor students should “start working if [they] can’t study.”

Keep brute force out of education and hold public officials accountable, join #BehtarBharat pic.twitter.com/d7Sco5kNKn

— NSUI (@nsui) January 7, 2019

Dear @vinodtawde ji. Ordering d arrest of students whose questions U couldn’t answer is a matter of serious concern. This #YoungIndia which is India’s future has voted U to power because they believed in you. Moreover this is not d philosophy of @ABVPVoice from where U hv risen.

— Ashoke Pandit (@ashokepandit) January 6, 2019

He's the one who was saying will put @AjitPawarSpeaks, @SunilTatkare etc in jails in #irrigation #scam when comes to power n now we don't even know where he is hiding with them only. @TawdeVinod @Dev_Fadnavis @BJP4Maharashtra remember something? #BJP https://t.co/sglXZvZuhc

— Saurabh Bidwai (@Saurabh_Bidwai) January 6, 2019

Every student must read this. “The education minister of Maharashtra directs cops to arrest student”. Why? Because he was shooting an interaction! No tough questions please!
They want Youth only to man their electoral booths, not answer questions about education & jobs. pic.twitter.com/X7iv7XZzLs

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) January 5, 2019

Amidst the raging controversy, Dabad said that he has submitted a letter to the police commissioner in Amravati and the district collectorate on Saturday against the minister and the police officials involved in the incident.

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