A mob of over 600 students of Giriraj Maharaj PG College went on a rampage, fighting a pitched battle with the police and setting two vehicles on fire. They were protesting against the alleged beating of two students, including a girl, by the dean of the college in Mathura district on Monday.

The traffic on Delhi-Agra Highway remained stuck for over four hours as the mob blocked the road damaging roadways buses and the police vehicles.

The students gathered at the Highway and indulged in violence after the Dean allegedly slapped two students — a girl and a boy — for not attending their classes and wandering around in the campus.

The Senior Superintendent of Police, Mathura, BD Paulson said the students had already been staging an agitation against the college management and the faculty for a week. Their allegations included assault on students by teachers over the slightest pretext in the classes and college management’s refusal to refund the caution money, the SSP said.

The police arrested 16 students for indulging in violence. Separate complaints from the college management and the students’ group were received at the highway police station, but Mathura ADM (City) Prabhat Sharma has been asked to broker a compromise.

“The Giriraj College provides degrees and post-graduate courses in science, arts and other subjects besides Bed,” the ADM said. “The students allege that they had paid a hefty fee for good education, but teachers often beat up students and do not even spare the girls.”

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