JNU students protests against sexual assault, autonomy to Universities, thrashed & detained

JNU students protests against sexual assault, autonomy to Universities, thrashed & detained

New Delhi: Demanding professor Atul Johri’s arrest in an alleged sexual harassment case and unhappy with the recent notification of MHRD to give full autonomy to 62 universities on the basis of their excellence, students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) took a massive protest march to the Parliament on Friday, however, they were stopped (with the help of water cannon) thrashed and detained at Sanjay Lake near INA.

Four days after eight women students came forward with sexual harassment complaints against the professor, no action has been taken against him and just one FIR has been lodged, the students have been shouting.

Around 4:30 pm, as the protesters had reached Sanjay Lake near INA they were stopped by the police who had barricaded the road to stop them from going towards the Parliament. As students tried to force their way past the barricades, clashes broke out between the police and students.
During this, 41 policemen and 35 students were injured. The SHO of Hauz Khas police station had to be admitted to a hospital with critical head injuries.
Moreover, police had also detained 23 students most of them were girls students who were trying to cross the barricade.

While talking to Ten News, student leader Umar Khalid said, “We were peacefully marching towards the Parliament to show our disappointment on various issues, however, police not only forcefully stopped us, but also thrashed and detained.”
“The police were especially targeting those were filming videos including journalists and camerapersons. This is unbearable. We will continue our fight,” he added.

Meanwhile, amid all this, women journalists from two dailies were manhandled and their cameras and phones damaged and snatched for clicking photographs from a distance. In a video that was shot during the protest, a photojournalist was seen being dragged away by policewomen who were far from containing the protests. They manhandled the journalist until a senior woman IPS officer rescued her.

“It seems the police were specifically asked to take the cameras and cellphones, and delete recordings or photos,” said a reporter from an online English publication. Some of the journalists whose cameras were taken away by the police said that they were not returned till late in the night and were instead offered replacements.

Later, Delhi Police spokesperson Madhur Verma told media that the vigilance branch of Delhi Police has been asked to probe into the incidents of violence against the journalists and appropriate action would be taken against the errant personnel.

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Ashok Tanwar and Brinda Karat reached the protest site to meet the students.