9 students identified as suspects in JNU violence:Delhi police; 7 including Ghosh from Left leaning bodies

The Delhi Police on Friday claimed that nine students seven of whom are from Left leaning bodies including JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh were identified as suspects in the violence in the varsity campus but did not name any group yet for the brutal attack by masked goons on students and teachers that left 36 injured.

The preliminary findings in the probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police which released pictures of the nine suspects were seized upon by three union ministers--Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal and Smriti Irani--who said the "Left design" in the varsity has been "unmasked" by the evidence collected by the police.

Left leaders in turn accused the Delhi Police of being a "government stooge" and said the question still remained on the identity of the masked people photographed at Sabarmati hostel at the Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) on Sunday and terrorising the campus for three hours with sticks, rods and sledgehammers.

The police also claimed that the January 5 violence was a fallout of the online registration process and that tension was brewing in the university since January 1.

Addressing a press conference, Joy Tirkey, DCP (Crime Branch), who is heading the SIT, said the Student Federation of India (SFI), All India Students Association (AISA), Democratic Students Federation (DSF) and All India Student Federation (AISF) had been allegedly "creating nuisance and threatening the students" against the recently started online admission for the winter semester in the varsity.

Those identified are Dolan Samanta, Priya Ranjan, Sucheta Talukdar, Aishe Ghosh, Bhaskar Vijay Mech, Chunchun Kumar (an alumni) and Pankaj Mishra.

The other two suspects named by police are Vikas Patel and Yogendra Bharadwaj. Police sources said the two are from the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

However, no one has been detained. Tirkey said notices will be served to all the suspects. He did not take any questions after the media briefing.

The officer said Ghosh and eight others were involved in an attack at the Periyar hostel on January 5.

Tirkey said a Whatsapp group 'Unity Against Left', believed to have been formed while the violence escalated, is also under scanner.

The JNU Teachers' Association(JNUTA) accused the Delhi Police of "underplaying" the violence and termed its version as "disturbing".

The Congress also accused the Delhi Police of conducting a "shoddy" investigation and alleged it was clearly influenced by the government.

Human Resources Development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said involvement of JNU students in the violence as pointed out in the police probe was unfortunate.

Rejecting the charges against the Left leaning students, Ghosh, who was injured, said she has not done anything wrong and all this is being done to create a narrative.

On being named as one of the attackers during the violence, Ghosh, the president of the JNU Students' Union(JNUSU), said she too has evidence on how she was attacked.

She said the police was quick to take cognizance of the complaint filed by the JNU administration against her but has not registered any FIR on her complaint.

After meeting HRD Ministry officials, Ghosh said the JNUSU stand on its demand for the removal of Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar stands but any decision on whether to call off the agitation against the fee hike will be taken later.

At his briefing, Tirkey admitted that lack of CCTV footage was a major hurdle in the investigation.

"The CCTV footage could not be fetched as the wifi based system and the cameras were all disabled."