New Delhi:
The Delhi Police on Friday released photographs of nine suspects identified for the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) last week, naming mostly members of the Left-controlled students’ union but giving few details on the attack by a masked mob on students and teachers on Sunday evening. Specifically focusing on clashes that took place on the campus before Sunday over increased hostel fees, Delhi Police officials named Chunchun Kumar, Pankaj Mishra, Aishe Ghosh, Waskar Vijay, Sucheta Talukdar, Priya Ranjan, Dolan Sawant, Yogendra Bhardwaj and Vikas Patel. Aishe Ghosh is the president of the Left-controlled JNU students’ union while Yogendra Bhardwaj and Vikas Patel are said to be members of the BJP-linked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad or ABVP.
Addressing a press conference, DCP (Crime Branch) Joy Tirkey, who is probing the case, said a majority of the students wanted to register for the winter semester from January 1 to 5, but the left-leaning students” bodies were not allowing them to do so.According to the Delhi Police, members of the Left groups attacked the server room at JNU to stop online registrations and enforce a strike over their protest against the increased fees.
The police admitted that it was facing difficulty in identifying those responsible for the attack on the Sunday because of a lack of CCTV footage, authenticated video recordings and witnesses.At a news briefing, Aishe Ghosh denied the police charges and said she had gone to the scene to stop the violence. “I was not wearing any masks, I have done no wrong… I still have my blood soaked clothes,” she said.Responding the Delhi Police charges, Union Minister Smriti Irani tweeted, “Left design in JNU unmasked. They led mobs of mayhem, destroyed public property paid for by taxpayers, disallowed new students from being enrolled, used the campus as a political battleground. #LeftBehindJNUViolence becomes public knowledge as Delhi Police releases evidence.”
The two cases against Aishe Ghosh and other left students for the clashes on Friday and Saturday were filed by the police within a span of four minutes on Sunday evening, shortly after she was taken to hospital bleeding from an attack by a masked mob. The JNU students’ union has been protesting against a hostel fee hike and had allegedly stormed into the server room to block the registration process on Sunday afternoon. There were clashes between the JNU students and the ABVP at the time.
There were no names in the third FIR, filed on the mob that barged into the campus and attacked students and teachers with sledgehammers and iron rods.The police has also been accused of letting them slip out of the JNU campus after a three-hour rampage. While JNU students have accused the ABVP of involvement in the attack in their complaints to the police, the student body linked to the ruling BJP has denied any involvement.
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