New Delhi: The 10 people arrested in connection with Sunday's violent clashes involving Jamia Millia Islamia students and the Delhi Police have been sent to 14-day judicial custody. In addition to these 10, a further 15 have been identified in raids. No students have been arrested so far.
While the police have said three of the arrested accused in the case have a criminal background and were arrested from Jamia Nagar and Shaheen Bagh areas, not a single arrested person is a student of the JMI, prompting questions of why law enforcement authorities had to storm the varsity's campus when even after two days of the incident no student of the University had been held. But the Delhi Police have maintained that the "attack on the policemen" on Sunday was well-planned. All the arrested persons have been remanded to judicial custody till December 31.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-East) Chinmoy Biswal said the accused are residents of Jamia and New Friends Colony and that two cases were registered with respect to the Sunday clashes. One of the cases names three local politicians and Asif Khan, a former Congress MLA from Okhla, in the suspect column. An investigator added that they are trying to find from where did the protesters gather the stones to pelt. "There was no place near the spot where protesters could have had access to stones, leading us to believe that they had gathered them from elsewhere," he said, adding that they had also received a call informing them of stones being stored in a sack near the spot.
Meanwhile, a CJI-headed bench on Tuesday directed aggrieved parties to take up matters related to police atrocities on students in JMI to the concerned High Courts, which CJI SA Bobde said are competent to appoint a retired judge to monitor any inquiry. The CJI also made it clear that "this is not a trial court", expressing disinclination to hear the matter.
While Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta argued that police had all permissions required to enter the campus, senior advocate Indira Jaising, arguing for the students said the JMI students were subjected to police violence. However, the Chief Proctor of JMI issued a statement later in the day saying that he had given no such permission to the police to enter the campus on Sunday night.