New Delhi: Former Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar says the police action against the protestors in Jamia Millia Islamia was reprehensible.
He was being interviewed by Sunetra Choudhury for the episode of On the Record, of Hindustan Times.
Kumar condemned the way protestors were handled in the Capital. He is the person who had handled Jamia protests during the anti-Salman Rushdie campaign on campus in the 80’s.
The former top cop says that the videos are very very disturbing. “I say this with a very heavy heart as led that force,” he says.
Though he justifies police going into the campus saying it was not illegal for the force in certain situations, but going into the library cannot be endorsed, he said.
According to Kumar, due to the unique topography of Jamia, anti-social elements of abutting colonies take advantage of the situation and in the garb of students and indulge in vandalism and stone-pelting. This makes difficult for the police to segregate students from people coming from nearby colonies.
Whatever had been the situation, there is no justification for the police conduct as shown in the videos, Kumar said. He says he felt sorry for the lady students and other students who were victim of harsh police action.