Police in India have filed a case against a left-wing student leader and 19 others for vandalizing a server room on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Saturday, but have yet to make any arrest into Sunday night’s brutal mob attack in which dozens of students and teachers were injured.
JNU Students Union President Aishe Ghosh, who was attacked by masked assailants on Sunday night, was named in the first information report (FIR or police complaint) of the Delhi police on Tuesday.
Ghosh was among at least 31 other students injured on Sunday when the mob of about 50 masked people raided the New Delhi-based university, attacking students and teachers with iron rods, sticks and sledgehammer and vandalizing property.
Kavita Krishnan, a left-wing leader and JNU alumnus, dubbed the police case against Ghosh “outrageous”.
“Aishe [Ghosh] herself has been a victim of murderous act and you are filing an FIR against the victim, whereas in the presence of Delhi police a whole hoard of assailants armed to the deep, walked out of the campus, battered on the back the police and they didn’t arrest anyone,” she told Al Jazeera.
The JNU Teachers Association, which has sought vice chancellor’s dismissal, also questioned the logic behind the FIR.
“It seems to be very clear that they want to escape from responsibilities on what has happened during the mob violence,” Surajit Mazumdar, the secretary of JNU Teachers Association, told Al Jazeera.
“I can’t see any other purpose behind this. I don’t understand on what basis and evidence are they, otherwise, filing an FIR against the JNU Students’ [Union] president who was badly injured.”
At a news conference on Monday, Ghosh blamed the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for the violence that has caused outrage and triggered nationwide protests. ABVP is a student group affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“It was an organized attack. They were singling out people and attacking. There is a clear nexus of JNU administration, security police and the ABVP vandals. They did not intervene to stop violence,” Ghosh was quoted as saying by the indianexpress.com website.
Witnesses had earlier told Al Jazeera the attacks on Sunday were carried out by ABVP members, a charge the right-wing student outfit has denied. The RSS-affiliated group instead blamed left-wing leaders for attacking its members.
Scores of riot police on Monday patrolled the university – the alma mater of several key ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet – picking their way past the shattered glass and broken doors and furniture.
Police made no immediate arrests, but blamed the violence on “rival student groups”. On Monday, it filed a case against unidentified people on charges of rioting and damaging property.
Despite repeated attempts, the Delhi police could not be reached for comments.
As condemnation of the attacks spread, more than 1,000 people held a vigil in Mumbai, India’s financial capital. Demonstrations were also held in Bengaluru, Kolkata and other major cities.
Nobel Prize winner for economic sciences, Abhijit Banerjee, a former JNU student, said the attacks had “echoes of the years when Germany was moving towards Nazi rule”.
The BJP denied claims by the opposition Congress party that it was responsible, and in turn blamed left-leaning student groups which dominate the JNU politics.
