JNU Violence: Police Release Images Of Suspects, Name 9 Including JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh

Delhi Police on Friday released photographs of nine suspects, caught on the CCTV camera, in relation to the violence that took place in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 5. While Delhi Police named several students who were involved in the attack and vandalism in server room on Sunday afternoon but gave few details on the attack by the masked mob on students and teachers later. Delhi Police clarified that these were just first findings and more information will be released as investigation progresses.

Delhi Police named Chunchun Kumar, Pankaj Mishra, Aishe Ghosh, Waskar Vijay, Sucheta Talukdar, Priya Ranjan, Dolan Sawant, Yogendra Bhardwaj and Vikas Patel. Aishe Ghosh is the president of the JNU students' union while Yogendra Bhardwaj and Vikas Patel are said to be members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Bhardwaj is said to be administrator of WhatsApp group 'Unity Against Left'. DCP (Crime Branch) Joy Tirkey, who is leading the SIT probe, 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.

Delhi Police's press pelease on JNU violence by Pratik Prasenjit on Scribd

According to the Delhi Police, Aishe Ghosh and other members of the Left groups attacked the server room at JNU to stop online registrations and enforce a strike over their protest against the increased fees. He added that specific rooms in the university's Periyar hostel were also targeted.

Ghosh, who was injured in the attack, refuted the charge saying the Delhi Police should make public whatever proof it has against her. Aishe Ghosh, who was injured during the mob attack in the evening, was named in two FIRs filed within a span of four minutes on Sunday evening, shortly after she was taken to hospital.

At the beginning of the briefing, Delhi Police PRO MS Randhawa said, "The investigation regarding the criminal cases filed in connection with JNU Violence incident is being done by Crime Branch. But it has been observed that a lot of misinformation related to these cases is being circulated."

JNU violence incident: Delhi Police releases images of the suspects, caught on the CCTV camera. #Delhi pic.twitter.com/UqNZCwKFId

— ANI (@ANI) January 10, 2020

This was the first official interaction by Delhi Police after violence in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus which left 34 people including students injured on January 5. 

Meanwhile, three professors of the university approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to preserve data, CCTV footage and other evidence relating to the January 5 violence at the varsity campus. The petition also sought directions for preservation and retrieval of all material/evidences available with WhatsApp INC, Google INC and Apple INC pertaining to relevant data of WhatsApp groups 'Unity Against Left' and 'Friends of RSS' including messages, pictures, videos and phone numbers of the members, in connection with the violence at JNU.

The petition was filed by JNU professors Ameet Parameswaran, Atul Sood and Shukla Vinayak Sawant seeking necessary directions to the Delhi Police Commissioner and Delhi government. The petition, filed through advocates Abhik Chimni, Maanav Kumar and Roshni Naamboodiry, also sought a direction to the Delhi Police to retrieve all CCTV footage of JNU campus. On Sunday, a mob of masked men stormed the campus and targeted students in three hostels, unleashing mayhem with sticks, stones and iron rods by hitting inmates and breaking windows, furniture and personal belongings.