Questions raised on Delhi police’s selective release of probe findings on JNU violence

Delhi police on Friday released the findings of the probe related to two cases lodged by the JNU administration on January 3 and January 4 while the police could not identify even a single ‘masked attacker’ in January 5 violence referred to as ‘Black Sunday’ by protestors.

The approach of the Delhi police to release the findings of violence in the JNU campus in the sequence of the cases registered may be technically valid but it seems to be motivated for setting the narratives. Interestingly, the police could not make any breakthrough in the January 5 incident but gathered almost all the details of January 3 and January 4 incidents.

In a press conference on Friday afternoon, DCP of Crime Branch in Delhi Police Joy Tirkey who is heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) claimed to identify nine suspects including JNU students' union president Aishe Ghosh. Interestingly, the case of JNU violence was assigned to Crime Branch, not because of incidents related to shutting down the server of the university by protesting students but to probe violence in the campus in which over 30 masked men attacked inmates of Sabarmati Hostel. Before this incident, violence also happened in the Periyar Hostel of the university.

JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) has condemned the way police have tried to present the happenings. It is pertinent to mention that the incident FIRs related to damaging and vandalizing the server room was registered after the January 5 incident. The SIT chief, however, clarified that no suspect was detained but the process of interrogation of suspects would begin soon. Three cases have been registered till now, and they are being investigated by us, the SIT chief said. Addressing the media Tirkey also released images of the suspects. It is pertinent to mention that the SIT was constituted to investigate the violence on the campus on January 5.

None of the photographs released by the police on Friday were related to the third case registered by the police. Surprisingly, the cases related to January 3 and January 4 were lodged by JNU administration but the case related to violence on January 5 was registered by Delhi police in which a police inspector in the complainant. On January 5, more than 30 students of the university, including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, were injured after a masked mob entered the varsity and attacked them and professors with sticks and rods. They were admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.