Delhi police on Tuesday registered two FIRs against protesting JNU students who were allegedly caned, kicked and molested during a march on Monday against a hostel fee hike.
The charges relate to rioting, assaulting and obstructing public servants from carrying out their duties, and damaging public property. One FIR was registered at Kishangarh police station near the campus and the other at Lodhi Colony police station.
JNU students’ union president Aishe Ghosh alleged that policemen had not only lathi-charged the students --- an allegation the police deny --- but also molested several women students.
“The manner in which the police handled the situation is very, very shameful. Even when female officers were present on the spot, male police personnel manhandled women students and groped them,” Ghosh said.
Deputy commissioner (south) Atul Kumar Thakur said a case had been registered against unnamed students under penal code Sections 186 (obstructing public servant), 353 (assault to deter public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant) and 188 (disobedience of public servant’s orders) at Lodhi Colony.
Added to these were penal code Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 149 (common object of unlawful assembly), 151 (assembly despite orders to disperse) and 34 (common intention) as well as Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, Thakur said.
Police sources said the Kishangarh FIR mentioned similar charges.
The students, hundreds of whom had marched 10km towards Parliament on Monday, have alleged that police including plainclothes officers had chased and hit them while they were dispersing in the evening.
A blind student was knocked unconscious by a policeman. Teachers’ association secretary Surajit Mazumdar, who was leading the students away from the protest site, said he was kicked, punched and caned by two policemen after he questioned the cops.
A journalist said he was hit and gashed on the head by a CRPF jawan. At least 30 students were injured and 8 admitted to hospital.
A police statement has denied any lathi-charge but said the cops had “pushed back” some “agitated groups” that were trying to “forcibly break the barricades again”.
Police sources said 30 cops and only 15 students were injured in clashes during the eight-hour protest.
A senior police officer had on Monday said that any complaints of police excesses would be probed.
Students’ union joint secretary Mohammed Danish on Tuesday said a decision about lodging complaints against the police would be taken only after Wednesday’s meeting at the human resource development ministry, called to discuss the students’ demands.
On Monday, there had been a heavy deployment of police and paramilitary personnel outside the main gate of the campus even before the march started. Water cannons and PCR vans were also stationed outside.
Later, the police temporarily detained about 100 protestors, including students’ union president Ghosh, secretary Satish Chandra Yadav and former president N. Sai Balaji.
