Delhi Police has filed two FIRs against JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) President Aishe Ghosh and 18 others, just hours after Ghosh was badly injured in the 5 January mob violence on JNU’s campus. The FIRs were for separate incidents on 3 and 4 January.
The Quint has accessed one of the FIRs regarding the incident on 4 January. It is interesting to note that the incident occurred at 6 am on 4 January, but the complaint was filed by Shyam Singh – a JNU employee – on 5 January at 8:43 pm at Vasant Kunj Police Station (North) in Delhi, hours after reports came out of Ghosh’s injuries.
The police acted swiftly on this complaint and registered the FIR a mere six minutes later, by 8:49 pm the same day.
The question is – why was the complaint filed with police after almost 15 hours? By the time the complaint was filed with the police, the 5 January incident of JNU violence had already occurred – in which Ghosh and several other JNU students had been injured.
It is an attempt by the Delhi Police to paint JNU violence incident as scuffle between the JNU students, according to one of the lawyers of the injured JNU students.
“The complaint against Aishe Ghosh and others were filed with the police when the violence in the JNU campus had already happened. There are reports stating that the violence started in the campus at 4pm on 5 January. When masked goons are roaming around the JNU campus, beating students and teachers, the JNU administration, instead of controlling the situation, files a complaint against its student who is already injured and after her photos were already in the public domain.”Choudhary Ali Zia Kabir, advocate providing legal aid and advice to JNU students
Details of FIR Against Aishe Ghosh
The FIR against Ghosh states that her and 18 other JNU students were responsible for locking down the CIS (Communication and Information Service) facility in JNU on 3/4 January.
“The CIS office was closed down during the whole night of 3/4 January 2020. Since the entire registration process was halted due to the lockdown of the CIS office, an effort was made by the CIS Staff, with the help of JNU security guards, to open the office at 6 am in the morning of 4 January 2020. At this time, the following indulged in physical violence, pushed the lady guards, verbally abused them and threatened them with dire consequences if they would open the lock of the CIS office.”Excerpt from FIR
The FIR further states that “the University administration immediately informed the police about the incident. A police team led by SHO Vasant Kunj North police station visited the site and took stock of the situation and left after sometime.”
It then says that once again, at 1pm on 4 January, Ghosh and others “illegally trespassed the University property with the criminal intention to damage to the public property, once inside they damaged the servers and made it dysfunctional and severally damaged the fibre optic cables power supplies and broke the biometric systems inside the room”.
‘Violence Being Promoted For 4-5 Days in Campus’: Ghosh
Ghosh told media on Monday, 6 January, that, “It was an organised attack, they were singling out people and attacking. Since the past four to five days, violence was being promoted in the campus by some RSS-affiliated professors and ABVP.”
Ghosh was admitted to AIIMS late on Sunday, 5 January, where the doctors said that she had received deep cuts on her forehead. She was discharged in the early hours of Monday.
“Every iron rod used against the students will be given back by debate and discussion. JNU's culture will not be eroded anytime soon. JNU will uphold its democratic culture,” she added.
Meanwhile, that same day, Delhi Police filed an FIR against unidentified people in connection with violence in JNU. This case was registered in the early morning of 6 January, under Sections of rioting and damage to property, they said.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)