New Delhi: The Delhi Police issued an appeal to the public Tuesday to share any information related to Sunday’s violence on the JNU campus. Seeking photographs and videos of the incident, the appeal said a Special Investigating Team (SIT) of the Crime Branch is investigating the matter.
The appeal, which appeared in some newspapers, urged witnesses to share any activity they may have captured on their mobile phones or camera during the violent incident. It also requested them to “come forward and give their statements/footage/picture in their possession to the SIT”.
The move comes at a time when the Delhi Police is being widely criticised for its “inaction” during the violence Sunday. JNU Students’ Union President Aishe Ghosh, who was injured during the attack, said that “the police officials and the university’s security personnel did not intervene to prevent bloodshed”.
Human rights organisation Amnesty International India also called out the Delhi Police for “repeatedly failing” to protect peacefully protesting students.
Amnesty International India’s Executive Director Avinash Kumar said, “…the authorities have failed in their duty to ensure the safety of the students, signalling a shameful complicity of the state machinery.”
From the FIR registered on 6 January, it appears that though the police was inside the campus, no arrest was made from the spot. While two days have since passed, they have not even identified a single rioter.
The SIT of Crime Branch is headed by Joy Tirkey. Anil Mittal, additional PRO of the Delhi Police, said, “A crime branch team of Delhi Police is probing the case in a scientific and professional manner and evidence is being collected.”
According to a PTI report, “Teams from Physics, Chemistry and Biology divisions of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) were in the university.”
The physics team will collect evidence from the rods and stones that were used by the masked goons to attack the students, while the chemistry team would collect samples of chemicals and the biology team DNA samples.
The violence on the JNU campus left 34 people injured Sunday, when a group of masked goons stormed the JNU campus with lathis and stones and beat up students and professors.
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Call Ms Komal Sharma for tea and biscuits. She will sing like a canary.