New Delhi: The Congress on Friday accused the Delhi Police of carrying out a shoddy probe into last Sunday’s violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University under the political pressure and demanded immediate removal of Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and JNU Vice Chancellor M. Jagdesh Kumar.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said, “Today evening when the Delhi Police started their press conference, we were expecting to find fairness in their probe and hoped they would have identified the 50-60 masked attackers, who were seen by the entire country on Sunday.”
“But after looking at the press conference, we felt sad as the fairness of the probe came under question,” the former Union Minister said.
Maken said that looking at the investigation carried out by the Delhi Police, it seemed that it was a shoddy probe which also showed their involvement in the entire incident.
Maken said the police have turned the victims into accused in their probe.
His remarks came soon after Delhi Police on Friday released a list of nine students — seven from the All India Students Association (AISA) including JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh — responsible for inciting violence on the JNU campus last Sunday.
Delhi Police claimed that from the video footages they received, they identified Ghosh, Chunchun Kumar, Pankaj Mishra, Vaskar Vijay Mech, Sucheta Talukdar, Priya Ranjan and Dolan Samanta — all associated with left wing association.
However, while identifying Yogendra Bharadwaj and Vikas Patel, they did not say that the two were associated with the ABVP.
Slamming the Delhi Police for identifying ABVP activist Shiv Mandol as Vikas Patel, Maken said, “They have given the wrong names of attackers despite carrying out a probe for the last six days in the age of social media and technology.”
He also claimed that several news channels in the past six days have exposed the masked attackers in JNU violence. “Yet, Delhi Police were unable to find the real culprits,” Maken claimed.
The Congress leader also said that Delhi Police released only nine names while they were unable to unearth the names of the outsiders who were part of the attack on JNU campus.
“The Congress demands the removal of the VC and Delhi Police Commissioner with immediate effect. Delhi Police have been working under political pressure and a judicial probe should be ordered,” Maken demanded.
On Sunday, violence swept the JNU campus as several masked individuals, both male and female, thrashed students, including girls and teachers, inside the varsity campus with wooden and metal rods.