New CCTV footage released by the Delhi Police on Sunday, 16 February, claims to show students purportedly enter the Old Reading Hall in the MA/MPhil Department of the Jamia Milia Islamia university, allegedly carrying stones in their hands.
The students can then be seen barricading the door shut with tables.
This comes after the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), a group consisting of students and alumni of the university on Saturday released CCTV footage, which they claim is from 15 December 2019 when the Delhi Police had entered their campus after protests against the CAA-NRC turned violent.
JCC’s video shows armed policemen entering a hall and thrashing students who were supposedly sitting and studying there. The Jamia students claim the video is from the university’s Old Reading Hall in the MA/MPhil department.
"CCTV footage is showing the brutal act of police forces and how the state sponsored terrorists are playing the game of brutality on the students of Jamia who were preparing for their examination inside the Old Reading Hall of Library,” a statement released by Jamia Coordination Committee said.
‘University Hasn’t Released Video, JCC Not an Official Body’
However, the university has denied releasing the CCTV footage and said that JCC is “not an official body.”
“It has come to our notice that some video with regard to police brutality in Dr Zakir Husain Library of the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) is in circulation. This is to clarify that the video has not been released by the university,” the statement read.
“This is to clarify that JCC is not an official body of the university. Any communication from JCC should not be taken as communication from the university,” it added.
On 15 December, several students from the old reading hall in Jamia had shared SOS videos and messages alleging that police had entered the room, thrashed students and shelled tear gas on them.
Hours after the siege, when journalists had entered the campus, they had found that the reading hall was damaged, and chairs and tables were left broken.
Delhi Police Takes Cognisance, Says ‘Will Investigate it’
Special Commissioner (Crime) Praveer Ranjan on Sunday told ANI, “We have taken cognisance of the latest video of Jamia Millia Islamia University (library) which has surfaced now, we will investigate it.”
Delhi Police had earlier said they had entered the campus because there were goons amid students who were pelting stones and indulging in violence. “We were trying to protect other students from violence, hence we had to shell tear gas inside the library.”
‘Shame on Delhi Police’: Twitter Erupts in Anger
From Priyanka Gandhi to Anurag Kashyap, several people on social media slammed the Delhi Police for unleashing ‘brutality on innocent students’.
‘At Whose Orders?’
Meanwhile, BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya alleged that the video shows the “anatomy of Jamia rioters who tried hiding in the library after a stone pelting session.”
(Correction: An earlier version of the story said the Delhi Police’s video showed Jamia students entering the library with stones. However, The Quint has not been able to verify whether the students were indeed carrying stones, as claimed by the Delhi Police. The article has been updated to reflect the same.)
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