JNU violence: Delhi Police identifies 9 'suspects' including Aishe Ghosh

New Delhi: The Delhi Police named Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Aishe Ghosh among nine suspects for violence at the university last week and released their circled photographs to the media on Friday. Identifying them on the basis of technical evidence, the police gave few details on the attack by a masked mob on students and teachers on Sunday evening.

Hours after a meeting with officials and members-elect of the JNUSU over the hostel fee hike, the HRD Ministry on Friday said the administration had addressed the basic demands of the students and requested them to end their three-month-long agitation.

Focusing on clashes that took place on the campus before Sunday over increased hostel fees, Delhi Police officials named Aishe Ghosh, Chunchun Kumar, Pankaj Mishra, Waskar Vijay, Sucheta Talukdar, Priya Ranjan, Dolan Sawant, Yogendra Bhardwaj and Vikas Patel. The last two, Bhardwaj and Patel, are said to be members of the BJP-linked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

According to police, they would serve notices to these people to join the investigation in the case. Three cases have been registered till now and they are being currently investigated.

Addressing a press conference, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) 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 students' groups did not allow them to do so. Members from AISA, AISF, DSF, SFI came and shut down the server. After two hours, the system was restored but there were issues again. Later, a strike was enforced over their protest against the increased fees, said the officer.

Later the DCP (Crime), who is also heading the SIT team in the case, said on January 5 after the 3.45 pm attack on students at Periyar, a peace meeting was held at Sabarmati T-point which was attended by teachers and students at about 7 pm. While this meeting was still on, a group of people came and first got into an altercation with people at the meeting and later entered Sabarmati hostel and attacked the students.

According to the investigators, they attacked some specific rooms at the hostel. Several, including Aishe Ghosh, were also attacked, the police officer claimed.

Meanwhile, DCP Tirkey further said they were not able to get genuine CCTV footages of the incident but with the help of mobile videos and other technical investigation tools, they were able to identify the suspects.

The official also spoke about a WhatsApp group (Unity Against Left). "After the incident, the members left the group," an investigator said. The police identified the administrator of the WhatsApp group as one of the nine suspects.

Further, even if the Delhi Police narrative about the violence arising from a fight between two student groups is believed to be true, the investigators have not yet said how that would explain several professors being assaulted inside the campus. Neither does it explain why students would go all the way to the faculty quarters at New Transit House looking to beat up teachers.

Meanwhile, a sting operation done by an English channel revealed that ABVP members were part of the violence on January 5. One of the guards of JNU named GV Thapa was present at the campus on that day. He was posted at Saraswatipuram Gate.

He said: "I was alone. They (goons) said do you want to be beaten up. They told me they had thrashed the other guards too. Do you know what will happen to you?"

Akshat Awasthi, who claimed to be a first-year student of the French degree programme at JNU and an ABVP activist, identified himself in the video.

He claimed that a police officer on duty encouraged the mob to beat up the Left students.

He further said that the students and teachers who were present at the spot ran away. No one had any idea that the ABVP would ever retaliate like this. When he was asked whether he mobilised 20 people from outside, the student said that he was the one who did all the mobilisation.

Another student, Rohit Shah, also confirmed his involvement in the violence. The sting was also conducted on former JNUSU president Geeta Kumari.

It was related to the destruction of the university servers. She said they decided to shut the server room so that the administration could not function.