A six-member team from the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) has released a fact finding report that looks into the incidents of alleged police brutalities at the Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMIU) campus on December 13 and December 15, 2019.
The team went on a four-day fact-finding endeavor, from December 16 – 19, speaking to a number of students and workers at the university campus, as well as eye-witnesses to the events from neighboring areas, to reconstruct events. Though the report does not claim to provide a complete account of the events that transpired, it does cover a number of simultaneous happenings across the campus from December 13 to 15, 2019.
Recalling the alleged police brutalities in Jamia Milia Islamia University on 9 April 2000, documented in PUDR’s fact-finding report “Bloody Sunday: Brutal Attack on Jamia Students” of May 2000, this report attempts to provide an extensive account of this bloody Sunday of 15 December 2019.
The major findings of the report are as follows.
Excess Police Force
The decision by the Delhi police to disallow students from conducting a march to Parliament on December 13 was followed by an excessive lathi charge. This was not just aimed at pushing back protestors, but allegedly at also injuring them. This action did not dissuade the protest, but only ensured that more students joined in, leading to police forces coming closer to the campus for an even more violent attack.
As per the Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar during her press conference on December 16, 2019, the forces entered campus without the permission of the university administration.
The police entered the campus without authorisation from University officials. The destruction of the CCTV cameras by the police at the gate, library and reading rooms was found to be clear evidence of the police trying to engage in actions that were prohibited, amounting to criminal offences.
The findings of PUDR about the attacks on guards, students, the Imam of the SRK masjid and other employees indicate that this was indiscriminate. Whoever the police could catch hold of, was subject to lathi charge and tear gas, apart from being subject to communal abuse. Added to that, their entry in the library and reading rooms is further evidence to show that they targeted people unconnected with the protest.
The police used brute force – hitting people on their head, face and anterior side of the legs; force hard enough to cause deep gashes and bone fractures aimed at terrorising students and the wider community.
On December 15, the rally had taken the form of a march at around 3:30 PM. Before 4:30 pm the rally had bypassed the police barricade and found its way through a branch road to the Mata Mandir Road towards the Mathura Road and some people at the head of the rally had attempted to block traffic on that road. It is on Mathura road that two persons received bullet injuries, one on the chest and one on the leg. Two videos coordinated and aired by NDTV channel show three policemen with small firearms shooting and one fleeing protester getting hit by a bullet.
People running roadside vends, those at the temple and guards at houses with gates opening onto the road told us that the crowd consisted of very few students who ran back quickly towards campus-side once the police lathicharge started.
A school girl (9th or 10th grader) was running inside campus and crying, saying “Bhaiya bahut maara.”
Three students caught in the violence outside campus when the police entered the university were trying to get inside near Gate 1 but 8-10 policemen saw them and started beating them up. There wasn’t a single female constable with them. Out of the three, one of the women students was beaten up the worst. The police hesitated for a second before hitting her but then noticed her scarf and started beating her.
The guards at both gates who were present at the time of the incident stated that approximately 50-60 uniformed men (with some in civilian clothes) attempted to enter through the gates forcibly. When the guards tried to stop them, they broke the lock and chain at the gates, kicked and assaulted the guards, and broke the windows of the guardrooms.
From here, multiple eyewitnesses (including students and passersby who were present at the scene) stated that the forces began to beat up and lathicharge indiscriminately anyone who they saw on their way, including students both men and women, staff such as guards and workers etc. Particularly, brutal assaults, tear gassing and lathicharge took place at the library and mosque.
On the ground floor, the police broke the window meshes and the glass panes lining the reading room, and tossed many rounds of teargas inside where the students were studying.
The police were lathi-charging the male students and when the women tried to help them, the police started hitting the women students who then ran into the women’s washroom.
Students started pleading with the policemen to not beat them as they were only studying. The police launched communal abuses on them (“jihadi”, “deshdrohi”, “katwa”), and then had them line up and come outside the room with hands on their heads, after which they sat them down on the stairs and beat them. The communal abusing continued, “tum mulle ho, katwa ho, tumhein chodenge, tumhare 7 pushton ko chodhenge”, alluding to threats of sexual violence.
The policemen launched communal abuses and beat the Imam with lathis along with 2-3 others who were at the gates with him, reminding them of the Golden Temple incident (“swarn mandir yaad hai na?”). One of the policemen in this troupe was a Sikh man who did not react to this reference.
Detention and Prevention of Medical Aid
The police had detained 15 students and one local resident from the New Friends Colony PS, and around 34 students at the Kalkaji PS. The detainees were prevented access to family members and lawyers and even those detainees who were gravely injured were denied medical aid. The injured were removed from the hospital and ambulances were prevented from reaching there.
The Al-Shifa Hospital saw a total of 85 injured students being admitted and AIIMS, a total of 22. Two students with bullet wounds were admitted to Safdarjung Hospital.
At the PS, the police took the student I-card of the detainee we spoke to, which was never returned to him, and clicked a photo of him. Though he asked to be released once they had taken his ID, a police officer kicked him, causing him to fall, and said ‘10 number ka joota hai, dekh le.’ The student and his friend were then shoved into a room, where 15 people, several of whom were badly injured, had already been detained.
The Facebook post of one male Kashmiri student who had been detained at the NFC thana narrates that he had been brutally beaten up on his head repeatedly when he was in the library, had communal abuses hurled on him, and flogged by at least 40-50 policemen on the way from the library to Gate 7.
Throughout 11 this time, they were told to keep their mobile phones away, continuously barraged with verbal abuses, taunted with ‘kya problem hai tumhe CAB se’, etc.
While leading them out, police officials were grabbing the hands of those injured on their lands, and making those with injured legs walk.
Only the most gravely injured were put on stretchers or given any firstaid treatment, though most were in need of some. No water or food was given to the detainees there.
Police Account
The police has given different accounts of its actions, what it did and did not do, and provided different explanations for each of these, in tandem with the new facts as they emerged.
PUDR spoke to DCP Biswal who said police were compelled to use force against the protestors to control a riotous mob. In response to emerging allegations of firing, DCP Biswal categorically denied use of guns, and of bullets of any kind. One of the questions that had repeatedly arisen is whether the police used firearms, and bullets, or alternately rubber bullets. He has said that they had only used tear gas shells, both claims that were supported by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The DCP at his Press Conference on December 17, after reiterating that the claims of gunshot wounds were false, brought up a medical report that had surfaced that referred to a gunshot wound. He continued that “if”, underling the “if”, there indeed was a gun -shot wound the police would inquire into “kaun zimmewar hai” / who is responsible.
Speaking about why teargassing took place, the DCP said, ““Jo log police par pathrav kar rahe the, public property mein aag laga rahe the unko disperse karne ke liye teargas shells ka istmal kiya gaya.”
Destruction of Property
The Bloody Sunday witnessed widespread damage and destruction of property, especially in the university library. DCP Biswal has claimed that the police were compelled to use force against the protestors to control a riotous mob that had resorted to violence and was destroying public property, and that its justification for entering campus without permission was to find out about the stone-pelting happening from inside campus.
Some persons from the protest rally were responsible for damage to private vehicles parked in the NFC area and arson on one motorcycle, while other protestors tried to restrain them from doing so to ensure peace and calm. The police was found to be responsible for damaging the vehicles of student and other residents, and also the destruction of CCTV cameras, window panes and other properties in the library.
Why the judiciary must take suo moto action against the Delhi Police
On December 16, 2019, senior advocate Indira Jaising on behalf of Jamia students/ alumni, petitioned the Supreme Court seeking suo moto action against police brutalities on Jamia and AMU campuses the previous night, before a bench headed by CJI SA Bobde through an independent committee. The Bench first refused to hear the matter, citing destruction of public property by protestors but posted it for hearing the next day. On December 17, 2019, the three-judge bench headed by the CJI refused to constitute a special committee to look into the incidents, asking the petitioners to approach their High Courts instead.
However, the scale of the attack and the brutality of the police, along with their unauthorised entry into the campus should have been sufficient reason enough for the judiciary to look into the matter and issue appropriate directions to ensure medical relief and enquire into the conduct of the forces.
Both, the Supreme Court and the High Court refused to hear the matter immediately, with the SC stating that it wasn’t a court of first instance for determination of facts.
What PUDR demands
1. That the right of citizens to protest must be recognised as inalienable and the practice of routine refusal to grant permission must be stopped.
2. That an FIR should be registered against the police for brutal use of force inside the campus in Jamia Millia Islamia.
3. That a Commission of Enquiry be instituted to examine the unauthorised, unjustified and excessive use of force and wanton acts of destruction by the Delhi Police.
4. That the police personnel to be posted at police stations in the Jamia area need to be sensitized to counter a communal outlook and to ensure civil behavior as becoming of a public servant. The police personnel and officers who were part of the attack on students need to be shunted out of the police station without delay
The declaration of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) has propelled large scale protests throughout the country, with major protests beginning in Assam.
The agitation soon found its voice in students who deemed the Act to be religiously discriminative in nature and the students of JMIU were the first to spearhead the movement against it.
In their peaceful protest, they were met with unwarranted and uncalled for brute force by the Delhi police, the actions of which were okayed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In a shameful display of power, the basic rights of the students were trampled upon. There was a ‘war-like situation’ in their campus and many innocents had to suffer due to the actions of people who were identified as not being students of the campus. PUDR’s findings state that a growing number of outsiders had joined the protest.
The atrocities of the police on the students can only be said to be state-sponsored and highly condemnable. Not only Jamia, a repeat of the incident took place at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) where the police indiscriminately beat up students and injured many in tear gas lobbing and the use of stun grenades injuring scores and leaving one handicapped.
The entire report by PUDR may be read here.
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