ABVP students refuse to join probe into JNU violence

Delhi police yesterday launched a probe into the January 5 violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University, officials said.
Akshat Awasthi and Rohit Shah, who are members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidharthi Parishad, whose faces emerged during a TV channel sting, refused to join the investigation, the police said.
The ABVP is the students’ wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
A police official said they tried to contact a “masked woman”, identified as Komal Sharma, but her phone was switched off. “A notice has been sent to her to join the investigation. She is a student of Delhi University’s Daulat Ram College.”
The police have so far issued notices to nine people asking them to join the investigation. Seven of them are from Left organisations. Three – JNU Students Union president Aishe Gosh, Bhaskar Vijay and Pankaj – joined the investigation yesterday.
Gosh was questioned separately yesterday, a senior police officer said,  adding one of the questions the police asked her was who hit her and whether she could identify the suspect.
She was also asked how many stitches she received for her head injury.
Ghosh had told a TV channel that she was hit by an iron rod and that she received 10 stitches on the upper part of her forehead.
The other suspects, Bhaskar Vijay and Pankaj, were questioned together by a Special Investigation Team.
The police are trying to gather all the information to form a sequence of violence that rocked the university.
The police have decided to send a legal notice to 37 more people, part of a WhatsApp group involved in the violence.
Meanwhile, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said said the JNU protest was no longer justified as the fee issues had been sorted out after several rounds of talks with representatives of students and teachers.
“The main demand related to increase in service and utility charges and others has been settled. Thus, the continuation of agitation is no longer justified,” Nishank was quoted as saying by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).
He also said institutions of higher education should not be converted into a political arena.
A high-powered committee was set up by the ministry to restore the normal functioning of JNU through dialogue and to advise the university administration for resolution of contentious issues.
The decision to waive off service and utility charges was taken at a meeting between the panel and the JNU administration on December 11.
Meanwhile, Jamia Millia Islamia university, which has also been hit by student protests, yesterday assured agitating students that “we will approach courts for registering an FIR against the Delhi police” for the violence on the campus on December 15.
“We had initiated a complaint, but the police didn’t register an FIR. We have also sent an objection to the government regarding the same,” Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar said.
“Now we will move the court against this inaction as the police entered the campus without permission and hence, we want an FIR to be registered against them,” she added.
She also clarified that she didn’t issue any notice asking the students to vacate hostels after the violence.
Akhtar also said that security has already been beefed up on the campus. Meanwhile, in an official statement, JMI stated that the ongoing semester exams have been cancelled.
“On the demand of the protesting students, the vice chancellor in consultation with the deans, head of departments and other officials announced that the ongoing semester exams stand cancelled till further notice. New schedule will be declared later,” the statement read.
The students surrounded the vice chancellor’s office to press for their charter of demands. Organised under the banner of Jamia Co-ordination Committee, the students gathered at noon near the vice chancellor’s office to set up a blockade.
The students demanded that an FIR be registered against the police for the incidents of assault on students on December 15. The protesters have also sought assurance of security for the students.