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New Delhi: Delhi high court on Thursday (July 23) accepted for urgent hearing a public interest litigation filed by a top Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha former officebearer seeking a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the youth-led protest over repeated examination failures. The court will hear matter on Friday.

Details of the petition, as per a report on Live Law, appear to allege “foreign funding” of the protest and question its democratic credentials, focusing on some of its organisers, especially climate activist Sonam Wangchuk as well as those who have supported the students.

“…the so-called protest is not, in substance, a genuine protest by students or for student-related concerns. Rather, it appears to be a part of a larger conspiracy allegedly orchestrated by anti-national and foreign elements with the purported intention of destabilising the country by exploiting financial influence and monetary resources,” the plea states, Bar and Bench reports.

Wanghuck has been on hunger strike for 25 days, supporting the call of the students for Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign after the hardship, including several student deaths by suicide, since the NEET (undergraduate) paper was ‘leaked’ in April.

Live Law reports that the petition before the high court seeks investigation into the “role of organisers, participants and any alleged external or foreign influence”. It says Wangchuk has received “substantial support and recognition from various foreign organisations”.

The allegations are similar to those........

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