Jamia Millia Islamia VC Meets Delhi Police Commissioner Over Police Action On Campus

Jamia Millia Islamia Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar on Tuesday met Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and urged him to lodge an FIR in connection with the police action on campus after violence erupted during an anti-CAA protest nearby, officials said.

Besides Patnaik, Akhtar met Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) Praveer Ranjan and Joint Commissioner of Police, Southern Range, Devesh Srivastava.

On Monday, the vice chancellor had said the varsity administration will "explore the possibility" of moving court for registration of an FIR against "police brutality" on the campus after hundreds of angry students gheraoed her office demanding action against the Delhi Police.

On December 15, violence erupted during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in south Delhi's New Friends' Colony near Jamia Millia Islamia. Protesters torched vehicles and clashed with police.

Police resorted to baton charge and fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. They entered the university campus and cracked down on students.

Meanwhile, a team of National Human Rights Commission officials visited Jamia on Tuesday to record statements of the students who were injured during police action on the campus. 

The NHRC had last month sent a fact-finding team to investigate whether there were any violations of human rights during the police crackdown at the varsity premises on December 15.

"After conducting an on-spot inquiry earlier, NHRC has decided to further probe the Jamia university incident. The rights panel team will conduct this investigation from January 14-17," a source in the NHRC said.

On Tuesday, around 35-40 students were present to record their statements with a NHRC team, led by SSP Manzil Saini, to conduct an inquiry to know whether there were any violations of human rights during the incident, varsity officials said.

According to the NHRC, it had received complaints in December alleging illegal detention of students by police and denial of legal and medical access to injured students at the police station, following which it had registered a case and deputed a probe team.

The four-member team of the human rights body headed by a DSP visited the varsity and recorded the statements of students who were either injured or witnessed the alleged police brutality inside the varsity library on December 15, said university spokesperson Ahmad Azeem.

A total of 25 students out of 40 present gave their version in writing to the NHRC team. Before that the team interacted with all the students who narrated stories of last month's "police action", he said. The team will visit the campus again on Wednesday and also on January 16 and 17 for recording statements of the remaining students, employees and security personnel of the university, he said.