JNU student on strike falls ill, taken to hospital

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar Shweta Raj was taken to the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in a critical condition on the fourteenth day of her hunger strike on late Wednesday evening.

She was referred to the hospital as she began  complaining of “severe pain” in her abdomen along 

with difficulty in breathing, a JNU students on the campus said.

Shweta, who is a convener of the JNUSU in the school of language, is one of the 21 scholars of the university who were charged with committing indiscipline and punished for it on the basis of a recommendation of a high-level committee which probed the Afzal Guru event.

Meanwhile, the administration made a fresh appeal to the students to call off their hunger strike.

Earlier, two students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who have been slapped with rustication and outbound from the campus, had approached the High Court seeking annulment of the punishment but the High Court rejected their plea.

Eight students, including the JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and Sweta Raj have withdrawn from the fast against the punishment by the varsity in connection with the event while 12 others are still continuing with their hunger strike which entered the 15th day on Thursday.