FIRs filed in fresh JNU violence, but Jan 2020 case still unsolved

Around 100 masked persons had gone on a rampage inside the university for four hours on January 5, leaving 36 students, teachers and staff injured. An FIR was registered and the SIT was formed after three cases were transferred to the Crime Branch.

Two years and another incident of violence later, that case appears to have hardly moved forward. In the wake of Sunday’s violence at JNU, members of Left student bodies alleged the lack of police action in the 2020 case emboldened ABVP activists to take the law into their hands again. During a protest march by the JNUSU on Sunday night, among the slogans raised was: “Baar baar ye nahi hone denge.” The ABVP, on the other hand, blames Left activists for instigating violence on both occasions.

Last year, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in the Lok Sabha that the Delhi Police had reported that an SIT was constituted to investigate three cases registered at the Vasant Kunj (North) police station with regard to the 2020 violence. “Investigation conducted includes examination of witnesses; collection and analysis of footages; and examination of identified suspects. As reported by the Delhi Police, no arrest has been made in these cases,” he said, replying to a written question by DMK member Dayanidhi Maran.

Last year, the case file was transferred from the first investigation officer (IO) to a second one, and was handed over to a third recently. DCP Joy Tirkey, who was heading the SIT, was also transferred from the crime branch recently.

As part of the probe, the first IO had written to WhatsApp and Google asking for details of messages, photos and videos shared by the 33 students and members of two WhatsApp groups — ‘Unity Against Left’ and ‘Friends of RSS’. “While WhatsApp refused to share details, Google said the information requested relates to services offered by Google LLC, a company organised and operating in the US and governed by US laws,” said a police source.

On January 9, 2020, days after the violence, Delhi Police had released the names of nine suspects — all students, of whom seven were identified as members of Left-student outfits. The other two were from the ABVP, though police did not name the outfit. After registering an FIR, 20 personnel of the police’s SIT set up a camp office inside the JNU administration block. Police later questioned 100 persons, including Delhi University student Komal Sharma, who claimed that she was not present on campus during the violence.