Police name four Left groups, say they triggered Sunday’s violence

New Delhi: Several masked as well as unmasked attackers caught on camera in the JNU violence on Sunday remained unidentified by the Delhi Police who on Friday handed

New Delhi: Several masked as well as unmasked attackers caught on camera in the JNU violence on Sunday remained unidentified by the Delhi Police who on Friday handed out images of nine identified suspects and attributed the mob attack to a chain of events between January 1 and afternoon of January 5 (Sunday).

HT Image

The police named four Left student groups, whose members make up the incumbent Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU), of allegedly stalling online registration, damaging servers and other property at the administration building, and threatening and assaulting students who wanted to register — a series of events culminating in Sunday’s violence.

The suspects yet to be identified include a masked woman attacker (many on social media had identified her as an ABVP member); an unmasked man holding a stick (seen next to another suspect Vikas Patel); and a third unmasked man seen hitting another student.

For identifying the nine suspects, the Delhi Police said they used videos and images from social media and matched them with the student database. As for the remaining unidentified attackers, police said they are yet to get the original videos and images from people who recorded them.

“We have 30-32 eyewitnesses, but they did not record videos or photos on phones. We are yet to obtain the originals,” Joy Tirkey, chief of the special investigation team (SIT), probing the JNU violence, said.

The police are yet to register a case or question Pinky Chaudhary, the leader of right-wing group Hindu Rashtra Dal, who purportedly claimed on TV to be behind the attack on students.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

In the press conference, police said on Sunday, there were at least two incidents of scuffle prior to the final mob attack around 7pm.

While the police named JNUSU members and sympathisers of resorting to violence in the first two incidents, they did not identify the group that carried out the late evening attack.

DCP Tirkey said four groups — Students Front of India, All India Students Federation, All India Students Association, and Democratic Students Federation — which have been protesting against the hostel fee hike since October 28, had been stalling the registration process that started on January 1.

“A majority of students wanted to register themselves. But members of the four groups were not allowing that. Our probe has revealed that they were threatening students who tried to register,” Tirkey said.

On January 3, around 1pm, Tirkey said members of the four groups forcibly entered the administration building, manhandled staffers and shut the server. The JNU administration restored the server within 2-3 hours and filed a police complaint, naming eight students.

Tirkey said on January 4, members of the same four groups barged into the administration building and damaged the server again. Another police complaint was filed by the administration.

On January 5, around 11.30am, Tirkey said four students went to register themselves when a group arrived there and beat them up. Tirkey said around 3.45pm, Left group students, including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, attacked students at Periyar hostel.

“Some of them were masked and carrying sticks. The attackers targeted specific rooms. Some policemen (present at near admin block) and teachers contained the situation,” he said.

Around 7pm, police said 120-130 students were holding a peace meeting at Sabatmati T-point when a group of people, some of them masked and carrying sticks, came and had an altercation there. “The same group then entered Sabarmati hostel. They knew which rooms to target. There was some spillover in Narmada hostel as well,” Tirkey said, without identifying the group that meted out the violence.