Delhi police claim 'a litany of distortions': JNUSU

JNU students union (JNUSU) on Friday called the Delhi police' claims about the suspects of recent violence in the campus as “a litany of distortions, half-truths and outright lies,” saying it was an attempt to save the ABVP and deflect attention from the spine chilling horrors perpetrated by the “right-wing hooligans” on January 5.

JNU teachers association (JNUTA) also slammed the Delhi police over their claims, demanding for an independent investigation that can also scrutinize the acts of commission and omission on the part of the Police as well as the JNU Administration.

The Delhi police' attempt to paint the student body which has been agitating against the fee hike for more than 75 days as an unruly mob, only reinforces suspicions about its role in the January 5 campus violence, the teacher's body added

“The ploy to implicate the left in violence is an indication that this investigation is a political investigation with a clear agenda to placate (Home Minister) Amit Shah and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) which can employ violence with impunity with the State backing,” the student's body said in a statement.

The Delhi Police earlier claimed that nine students seven of whom are from Left backed students body bodies including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh were identified as suspects in the violence in the varsity campus.

“Delhi Police can do their inquiry. I also have evidence to show how I was attacked. Do that have any picture showing me attacking any student,” Ghosh told reporters at a press conference when her comments were sought on the Delhi Police' claims

Rejecting the police claim, she said video footage released on the social media showing her with some masked men did not prove that she was involved in any violence.

Expressing disappointment with the Delhi police claim, JNUTA said such underplaying of the incidents in the campus, which shocked the nation and subjected several to extreme trauma, was “deeply disturbing.”

“At the Press Conference conducted by the Delhi Police today on the events in JNU, the incidents of mob violence on the evening of January 5, which included the attacks on teachers and their families, were almost glossed over as a non-event,” the teacher's body added.