Ramjas College incident: Court asks video's genuineness

Police was today ordered by a court to file a report on a plea for an FIR in the Ramjas College incident in which alleged anti-national slogans were raised but questioned the complainant on the genuineness of the video.
The court directed the SHO of Maurice Nagar police station in North Delhi to file an action taken report (ATR) on the complaint by March 30 and asked the complainant to submit a chronology of events of February 21 and 22 when the clashes allegedly took place.
"Notice be issued to the SHO concerned to file ATR before the court on March 30," Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra said.

The magistrate asked the advocate, who is also complainant in the matter, whether the video of the alleged incident was shot by him and what was the source of the footage.
"Have you shot the video yourself? We are in an electronic age now and videos are being doctored. So we cannot believe in it. Even you are not sure about its genuineness," the court said.
To this, complainant Vivek Garg and advocate Puneet Goel said he was not aware of the person who shot the video and added that the CD made from video was shown by news channels and at social media. He said a certificate under the Evidence Act can be given by the reporter who had shot the video.

"It is a fact that an offence was committed at Ramjas College but who did it is a matter of investigation. No case has been lodged by the police on the incident that took place on February 21," Goel argued.

Narrating the chain of events, Garg said JNU student Umar Khalid, against who a sedition case was lodged last year, was "deliberately" invited as a speaker in the seminar in Ramjas College and when the authorities got to know about it, they withdrew the permission to conduct the event.
The complainant said he has already lodged a complaint
with the DCP (North) and the SHO of Maurice Nagar police station but no action has been taken by the police, following which he had moved the complaint before the court.

The court was hearing the plea after it was transferred before it by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM).
On February 28, the CMM had expressed anguish over the complaint and said, "it's all between students. Why are you (complainant) entering into it?"
The plea alleged that such slogans were shocking, damaging for the country and an open challenge to its unity and safety and the judicial system.
It alleged that organisers of the seminar had misled the college administration to obtain the nod for the event and "conducted activities against the nation and tried to wage a war against the country".

It sought lodging of FIR for the alleged offences of sedition, criminal conspiracy, waging war against the State and defamation under the IPC.
On February 21, members of RSS student wing ABVP had gathered outside the college and shouted slogans in protest against a seminar for which JNU students Omar Khalid and Shehla Rashid were invited. The ABVP members allegedly pelted stones, vandalised the venue and disrupted the seminar.
The next day violent clashes erupted between Left and ABVP students leaving several students and three teachers injured.