Akshat Awasthi Not Related To Us, Says ABVP As Alleged Activist Admits To JNU Violence In Sting Operation

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has claimed that they are not associated in any way with Akshat Awasthi - a JNU student who was caught on camera bragging about his role in the violence in the campus on January 5 in a sting operation. Reacting to a sting operation conducted by the India Today Group, ABVP General Secretary Nidhi Tripathi on Friday held a press conference and said Akshat Awasthi is neither an office bearer, nor a karyakarta of the organisation. It the video, telecast just hours after Delhi Police press conference on JNU violence, alleged ABVP activists Akshat Awasthi and Rohit Shah can be seen talking about the incidents on January 5 and their role in the attack on several hostels in the campus. 

In the operation conducted by the media house, Akshat Awasthi showed footage of the evening. In the video, he can been seen armed with a stick and his face covered with a helmet. He could be seen rushing through the hostel corridors in rage and knocking anything and anyone down that came his way.

"What did you have in your hand?" the undercover reporter asked Awasthi. "It was a stick, sir. I pulled it out from a flag lying near Periyar ."

The Delhi Police, on the other hand, released pictures of nine suspects in the JNU violence case and claimed JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh was one of them. Of the nine, seven belong to left-leaning student organisations while two are affiliated to right-wing students' body, the police said.

Addressing a press conference, DCP (Crime Branch) Joy Tirkey, who is probing the case, said a majority of the students wanted to register for the winter semester from January 1 to 5, but the left-leaning students' bodies were not allowing them to do so.

About the attack on January 5, the DCP said that specific rooms in the university's Periyar hostel were targeted. Several people including Aishe Ghosh attacked students in the hostel, the police officer claimed. Ghosh, who was injured in the attack, however, refuted the charge saying the Delhi Police should make public whatever proof it has against her.