Delhi police have taken note of the video purportedly showing its men thrashing students studying peacefully in a reading room in Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi on December 15, the day police and varsity students clashed in and outside campus leading to injuries on both sides.
“We have taken cognizance of the latest video (of December 15) of Jamia Millia Islamia University (library) which has surfaced now, we will investigate it,” a news agency quoted Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence), Praveer Ranjan as saying.
The video has sparked a fresh row with the Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra demanding action against the policemen and accusing the home minister and the Delhi Police of falsely exonerating the cops in the past. The government or the home ministry has not commented so far.
The video was tweeted on Sunday morning by Jamia Coordination Committee, a group of students from Jamia Millia Islamia University, as the proof of “police brutality” during the December 15 crackdown on varsity students during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the national capital.
Varsity students had claimed that Delhi police personnel entered the varsity campus without permission and assaulted students. They claimed over 40 students, including girls, were injured in the police action that day when unsuspecting students in varsity’s library, bathrooms and also on the streets outside the campus, were assaulted by cops.
{{/usCountry}}Varsity students had claimed that Delhi police personnel entered the varsity campus without permission and assaulted students. They claimed over 40 students, including girls, were injured in the police action that day when unsuspecting students in varsity’s library, bathrooms and also on the streets outside the campus, were assaulted by cops.
{{/usCountry}}Students had held a demonstration outside the police headquarters after the incident later that night and demanded that cops be punished and a CBI inquiry is ordered into their conduct.
Delhi Police said they have taken cognisance of the video and will investigate it as part of their ongoing probe into the incidents of December 15.
The Delhi Police had earlier denied using excessive force and said the police action was meant to flush out miscreants hiding inside the campus.
It claimed nearly half a dozen policemen and fire service personnel were injured in stone-pelting by the miscreants, who had also set alight several vehicles including public buses and police jeeps, near New Friends Colony, a stone’s throw away from the varsity campus.