Delhi Police told a court on Monday that it had to enter the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) campus on December 15, 2019, to contain the violence and rescue innocent students trapped inside as “rioters” had entered the university premises during anti-CAA protests and were pelting stones at the police and the public from inside.
The submissions were made in an action-taken report (ATR) filed before Metropolitan Magistrate Rajat Goyal during the hearing of a plea seeking registration of FIR against alleged police attack on students on the campus during the protests.
The court has put up the matter for further hearing on April 7.
The police said as it was not possible to distinguish between trapped students and rioters, who were found to be carrying petrol bombs earlier, and as a result all of them were asked to be evacuated with their “hands up”.
“With a view to contain the violence and maintain law and order, the police was constrained to enter the campus. The personnel were able to contain the violent activity by temporarily apprehending 52 persons under the Delhi police Act... The action was required in light of ongoing violence from within the university campus and to rescue innocent students trapped inside, and to ensure normalcy,” the ATR stated.
The police further submitted that the rioters had destroyed/damaged the lights within the campus, and it was difficult to distinguish between them and the innocent students. No student has been arrested so far in the case, it added.
