By IANS,
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday called upon the US authorities to remove the radio tagging monitors of Indian students who had been defrauded by a “sham” university in San Francisco and said that the officials responsible for this “inhuman treatment” should be punished.
In a memorandum to the US Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer, activists of the party’s human rights cell said the US State Department should take lenient view because the students were innocent and were not at fault.
“The radio collars forced on the students are unwarranted monitors which should be removed immediately and officers who are guilty of this inhuman treatment should punished. The students should be provided legal help free of cost and the students must be treated fairly and reasonably,” said Sudhir Aggarwal, national convener of the party’s human rights cell.
He said the students were not aware of the university not having registration and they should be provided help in getting admission in the alternate institutions.
He said report on the investigations and action taken against the promoters of the university should be shared with Indian officials.
Party MP Avinash Rai Khanna, who is in-charge of the party’s human rights cell, said “Atrocities had been committed against students duped by Tri-Valley University”.
“Some of the students have been forced to wear radio collars around the ankles. The collars are fitted with GPS technology and normally used to follow animals or criminals on parole,” Khanna said.
He hoped that the US administration will take steps to address concerns of Indian students.
Some 1,555 students of Tri-Valley University, 90 percent of them from India, mostly Andhra Pradesh, face the prospect of deportation following the closure of the university in Pleasanton on charges of selling student visas.