Who paid Jamia shooter, asks Rahul Gandhi a day after shooting in Delhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday questioned who paid the 17-year-old who shot at a student protesting the citizenship act in the presence of the police outside Jamia Millia Islamia university in south Delhi on Thursday.

The boy, dressed in a black jacket, had brandished a country-made gun at an anti-CAA protest near Jamia Millia Islamia and then shot at the protesters injuring one in the presence of scores of security personnel.

“Who paid the Jamia shooter?” Gandhi asked while speaking to reporters outside Parliament ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament.

A 22-year-old first-year MA student at the Mass Communication Research Centre (MCRC) suffered a bullet injury in his left arm during the protest, a call for which was given to commemorate the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Witnesses said he had shouted “aao aaj azaadi dilata hoon” (come, I will give you freedom) and raised religious slogans before pulling the trigger.

The Class 12 student at a private school in Jewar in Gautam Buddha Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh had put out several posts on Facebook.

The attacker was overpowered by protesters and subsequently arrested by the police.

The member of Parliament from Kerala’s Wayanad had posted a tweet on Thursday quoting Mahatma Gandhi on the anniversary of his assassination.

“I cannot teach you violence, as I do not believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before anyone, even at the cost of your life,” Gandhi had tweeted.

Congress leader P Chidambaram has also questioned the extension of Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik on the day of the Jamia shooting.

“The Police Commissioner of Delhi gets an extension on the day there is a shooting in the presence of a substantial police force.. incomprehensible and reprehensible. One has got an extension, but who has been suspended for the deplorable shooting yesterday?” the former finance minister also tweeted.

The firing triggered a political row with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress and the Left parties training guns at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging the law and order situation in Delhi had “collapsed” under the party.

Opposition parties and many Jamia students linked the shooting to provocative statements made by leaders of the BJP in the run-up to the Delhi assembly elections on February 8.