'“In my SIT (Special Investigation Team), there are three ACPs and seven officers, and we have been working day and night“, announced DCP (Crime) Joy Tirkey during a January 10 press conference by Delhi police on JNU violence. The officer laid down the purported sequence of events that led to a rampage in the varsity campus on the intervening night of January 5-6. He began with alleged vandalism of servers by students opposing hostel fee hike to stop registrations for the winter session of the university...
'On January 10, India Today broadcast a sting operation where first-year French degree program student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Akshat Awasthi, confessed his involvement in the January 5 attack. Awasthi identified himself as an ABVP activist. India Today investigation revealed three names – Akshat Awasthi (ABVP activist), Rohit Shah, and Geeta Kumari (former JNUSU president and AISA activist) – who confessed the roles they played that fateful night.
'Two photographs of JNSU president Aishe Ghosh have been juxtaposed together to portray that she plastered different arms at different times. Thus suggesting that her injuries are fake. Ghosh was injured during violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where masked goons attacked students on January 5-6. Shefali Vaidya was among those who made the allegation but later took it down... RSS-affiliated ABVP’s national organising secretary Ashish Chauhan also shared the images. His tweet, now deleted, was retweeted by Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale, in-charge of BJP’s foreign affairs department...
'A video of a man in a red jacket beating up another person in green clothing is widely circulating on social media to espouse the claim that students associated with Left parties attacked members of RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). This triggered the violence in JNU on the intervening night of January 5-6, per the narrative. Journalist Sumit Kumar Singh the first to tweet the video. He wrote, “This triggered clashes in #JNU campus. Students associated with Left parties bashed up #ABVP members when they were facilitating admission process.
'After a day of violence, students, teachers and alumni gathered at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Sunday night in a show of strength and solidarity. At 1 am, the main university gate, which had been blocked since before 7 pm, was stormed open by those protesting against the attacks students and teachers had faced during the day. Most students The Wire spoke to, particularly those who are not associated with any of the political groups on campus, did not want to be identified. “I can’t even trust the police,” one of them said, “so how will I know that I won’t be targeted?”...'
'Messages urging people to “thrash the anti-nationals” in JNU allegedly did rounds of some WhatsApp groups in the hours leading up to the violence on campus Sunday. The Indian Express managed to contact six people from whose mobile numbers the messages threatening violence were made in the groups. Out of the six, three said someone else may have “misused” their number to post the messages, one said his “friend posted the message”, two others said they entered the groups to “provide intel”.
'...Scroll.in examined screenshots of WhatsApp messages that were shared by social media users. Using Truecaller, an app that enables the identification of mobile phone users, and Facebook, the identity of some of the people exchanging messages about the violence was traced. The number associated with the message – “We entered their hostels and beat them up” – was traced to Saurabh Dubey over Truecaller. His Facebook profile shows he is an assistant professor at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College of the University of Delhi. He manages a group called “JNUites for MODI”.
'Violence has reportedly escalated within Jawaharlal Nehru University, with students, including the students’ union president, alleging that they were attacked by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad while the police looked on. Reports of stone-pelting were reported from within campus on Saturday as well. Students The Wire spoke to said ABVP members were walking through the campus carrying sticks with masks or scarves on their faces, looking for students associated with the fee hike protest.
'The ABVP has found itself in a tight spot with videos of three of its office bearers allegedly threatening and assaulting students at DU over protests against the new citizenship law being circulated on social media. In a 1:27-minute video, ABVP’s Shahdara District Convenor Jitender Chaudhary is seen harassing a student from Kerala. “Do you support CAA or not? Are you in favour of it or against it?”, Chaudhary asks him, to which he says he’s not in favour of the law. Then, another man in the video tells a person who is not in the frame to “take him away”...'
'...“We were all peacefully standing outside,” said Avilasha, a psychology student. “After our examinations got over, we were standing over here and talking. The police were also silently standing. Suddenly, the police started pushing people, police officers held us and started manhandling us. There was a girl who was kicked in her stomach. Every now and then, the police came in groups, dragging people outside the gate. We don’t know where they have been taken.” Saurabh, a law student who participated in the protest, said members of the ABVP approached them at about noon.
