More than 30 people were injured in the attack on Sunday evening which took place during a meeting called by JNU teachers’ association.
A fringe group Hindu Raksha Dal has taken responsibility for the attack on students and teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The group’s leader Pinky Chaudhary took the onus of the attack on Tuesday in a video posted on Twitter.
“JNU is a hotbed of anti-national activities, we can’t tolerate this. We take full responsibility of the attack in JNU and would like to say that they were our workers,” Chaudhary said in the video, according to news agency ANI.
Government sources said the claims made by Chaudhary are being investigated. “Delhi Police has taken cognizance. To identity masked men in JNU, Police is taking help of video footage as well as face recognition systems,” ANI said quoting sources.
More than 30 people were injured in the attack on Sunday evening which took place during a meeting called by JNU teachers’ association. Masked persons with iron rods and sticks were seen roaming around the university premises and hostels, thrashing students.
The Left-backed JNUSU and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) have blamed each other for the violence that continued for nearly two hours on Sunday.
JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh was also injured in the incident. She was rushed to AIIMS Truma Centre in New Delhi along with other injured people. All of them were discharged on Monday.
The Delhi Police, which is investigating the case, is taking the help of video footage and facial recognition system to identify those involved in the violence. Some students accused police of doing nothing to stop the violence.
Protests were held across India on Monday where students condemned the violence at JNU campus. More than 1,000 people held a vigil in Mumbai; demonstrations were also held in Bangalore, Kolkata and other major cities.
A protest against the violence at JNU – the alma mater of several key ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet – was also organised at Gateway of India in Mumbai on Tuesday morning, but the police forcefully evicted the protesters and asked them to hold the demostration at Azad Maidan.
Prasanta Patnaik