Protests continued in Coimbatore on Friday in support of the ongoing students agitation at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against the NEET question paper leak and for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

A sit-in demonstration by supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Coimbatore continued for the third day at Jeeva Illam, the office of the Communist Party of India, in the city on Friday.

R. Rajkumar, CJP’s coordinator for Coimbatore and west zone, said they were in constant communication with functionaries in Chennai and rest of the country to maintain the momentum nation-wide.

Members from various organisations under the banner ‘NEET Ethirpu Iyakkam Kovai’ staged a protest at Tatabad in the city raising various demands such as scrapping of NEET and resignation of Mr. Pradhan. Protesters held placards with photographs of students, whom they termed as victims of NEET.

A group of protesters staged a demonstration in front of the south taluk office under the banner of Progressive Youth Federation demanding Mr. Pradhan’s resignation and extending solidarity to the agitation at Jantar Mantar.

Meanwhile, the Coimbatore City Police on Friday deployed around 20 personnel on the ground opposite the Government Polytechnic College on Avinashi Road.

Police sources said that it was a preventive measure, based on alerts that anti-NEET protesters might assemble there. They said that the ground along the road to a trade fair complex could be a potential location for unanticipated protests as the VOC Grounds, where the jallikattu protest had taken place, is currently occupied by a government exhibition.

Advocate S. Balamurugan from the People’s Union for Civil Liberty criticised the police move, alleging that it was a clear act of silencing democratic voices. 

“The police have no right to object to peaceful assembly. The Supreme Court has clearly highlighted the right to peaceful gathering in the case “Ramlila Maidan v. Home Secretary, Union of India (2012)”, he said.