Letter shows JNU V-C allowed cops on campus

An internal communication to Delhi Police from JNU has revealed that the force was granted permission to enter the campus as they “may deem fit”, contradicting the V-C’s stand that he did not call police to the premises.

The letter dated February 11, a day ahead of the arrest of JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar, reads: “The Vice-Chancellor has granted permission to the police force to enter JNU campus if need be and as you may deem fit.” 

V-C Jagdesh Kumar had on Monday claimed that he did not give a free hand to police to come on campus and pick up students.

“I never invited the police to enter the campus and pick our students. We only provided whatever cooperation was needed as per the law of land. We were bound to do so,” he had told reporters.

The letter, by varsity Registrar Bhupinder Zutshi to DCP South, was sent in response to the two communications sent by police to the university asking them to rectify the faulty CCTV cameras and “produce six students for joining the investigation of the case”. Meanwhile, the students continued to boycott classes in protest against the alleged “mishandling” of the issue by university administration questioning the administration’s decision to allow the police “crackdown” on campus. 

When asked about the two contradicting stands, a senior varsity official said: “The letter was an assurance of cooperation as per the law of land. Understanding the concerns of the students about the security deployment on campus, we had raised the issue with police officials and there has been no deployment inside the campus since then”.