JNU violence carried out by masked mob using code words to target rivals, say sources

The incident left many people injured and on Monday morning the MLC of 35 students was completed both in AIIMS trauma centre and Safdarjung hospitals. At least 18 people from JNU were brought to the hospital’s Trauma Centre with head injuries and abrasions among other injuries on Sunday evening. JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh and General Secretary Satish Chandra were among the people injured.

In JNU, there was a tension simmering between the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and left-wing students for the last two to three days. The violence on Sunday started at 4 pm and continued for several hours. When the students of the Left-wing damaged the registration server, the tension increased further. Then there was a quarrel among the students and the matter continued to escalate at the Periyar Hostel after around 4 pm. Around 10 policemen were in plain uniform inside the campus and they were also assaulted following which there was a PCR call. Around 7 pm the policemen went inside the campus and left it around 8.30 pm.

After that, some WhatsApp groups were formed, planning for revenge took place and people started coming from outside. The code word was given through which the attackers could identify their people and not beat them. Around 7 pm, a masked mob armed with sticks attacked. It was dark at that time, so it was difficult to identify the people involved in the attack and code words were used to make sure the mob didn’t attack its own team members.

Around 8 pm, the police went inside with the campus with the permission of the Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar but by then all the attackers had escaped. There were some students of the JNU who were involved in this attack but mostly outsiders. Unfortunately, no CCTV cameras were installed where the violence took place. Some of the attackers have been identified.

Delhi Police Crime Branch has taken over the investigation into the violence at JNU. According to official sources, the Crime Branch team has been divided into three groups and each has been given a specific area of investigation.

One Crime Branch team is inside the JNU campus and is collecting all the CCTV footage from the hostels and other areas of the university. These CCTV footages which show the large-scale violence inside the university campus will prove to be extremely crucial in identifying the attackers.

The second team is busy tracking and arresting the attackers who have already been identified while the third Delhi Police Crime Branch team is collecting the viral videos and details of WhatsApp groups which were used to instigate the students.