On February 25, 2026, Azim Premji University (APU) filed a police complaint against students who had organized a campus campus discussion commemorating the 35th anniversary of an mass sexual assault.
The Spark APU Reading Circle organized a campus event for the evening of February 25 to mark Kunan Poshpora Remembrance Day, the 35th anniversary of the mass sexual assault of women in the villages of Kunan and Poshpora in North Kashmir. Like their other gatherings, the group advertised the event through posters and social media.
At 5:30 pm, a group of more than 20 non-student members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) gathered outside the venue on campus where the event was scheduled to take place. Carrying flags and posters, the group graffitied walls with demands to ban the Spark Reading Circle, shouted at students trying to attend the event, and allegedly assaulted an undergraduate who tried to question them. The student was subsequently taken to the hospital by a faculty member. After approximately two and a half hours, police removed the ABVP members from the campus.
The following day, APU filed a police complaint against the reading circle’s student organizers, accusing them of “instigating trouble” and “defaming” the university. The First Information Report (FIR) cited the students for organizing an unauthorized event and formally accused them of violating privacy, transmitting obscene material in electronic form, and committing “deliberate and malicious acts” intended to outrage religious feelings. The complaint further alleged the group used the university’s name without authorization and circulated content that led to a “security breach.”
The APU Student Council issued a statement expressing concern over the escalation of a campus-level matter into a criminal case, including the fact that the student organizers faced legal repercussions not faced by those who had harassed the group.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about the filing of police complaints against students for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association. Such conduct is expressly protected by international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India a party. University authorities must respect academic freedom and nonviolent expressive conduct and refrain from actions intended to punish, restrict, or deter such conduct. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, such actions undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.
UPDATE 6/28/2026: On May 8, 2026, APU suspended one of the students for two years on charges of “defiance of institutional processes,” “misrepresenting facts,” and “failing to de-escalate a volatile situation.”
Sources:
https://news.careers360.com/azim-premji-university-files-fir-own-students-spark-kashmir-abvp-student-council-opposes-bangalore
https://www.thenewsminute.com/karnataaka/abvp-activists-enter-azim-premji-university-assault-student-deface-campus-over-kashmir-event
https://www.thenewsminute.com/karnataka/azim-premji-university-files-police-complaint-against-students-who-organised-kashmir-event
https://www.altnews.in/inside-the-azim-premji-university-flare-up-vandalism-abvp-aisa-face-off-firs-against-students/
https://maktoobmedia.com/post?id=115432&slug=students-term-it-a-witch-hunt-after-apu-suspends-student-for-two-years-ignores-abvp-violence
https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/bengaluru-azim-premji-university-student-suspended-for-2-years-over-february-24-campus-ruckus-peers-protest-3996735