A JNU student was allegedly beaten up by a group of 16 students in his hostel room on Thursday. A complaint has been filed at Vasant Kunj police station.
An MA student, Vivek Pandey, claimed that the students attacked him at 1.30 a.m. at his Mahi-Mandavi hostel room without any provocation. He alleged they were “heavily drunk” and told the police that he could identify some of his attackers by face and knew four of them by name.
“I spent the entire night in the hospital, got my MLC done and then came to the police station to file a complaint. The police, finally, filed an FIR after making me wait for several hours. I appeal to the Delhi police to investigate the case and punish the culprits at the earliest,” Mr. Pandey said.
The Mahi-Mandavi hostel where Mr. Pandey was allegedly attacked is the same hostel where Najeeb Ahmed was allegedly attacked by a group of students in October 2016, before he went missing. The JNU students’ union reacting to the incident alleged that the people who attacked Mr. Pandey were members of the ABVP and were the same “goons” had attacked students on January 5 in which JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh was injured.
‘Reports of clash’
Reacting to the allegation, the ABVP said, “It has been reported that there were some clashes between students last night in a hostel at JNU. We don’t know anything in this regard but the Left-leaning organisations are raising baseless allegations in order to malign ABVP.”
The ABVP added that it is absurd to blame the ABVP for such unthoughtful incidents and if something really happened, then the university administration must conduct a fair inquiry. “Any further allegations with an intention to defame ABVP to will lead to legal course of action,” it said.
The All India Students’ Association (AISA) said that Mr. Pandey was an activist with their organisation and was attacked as has always raised his voice against any anti-student policy. It alleged that he had been targeted before as well for his views.
“We must not forget that in the same hostel, JNU student Najeeb was attacked by the ABVP, following which he disappeared. This is the same ABVP who attacked students and professors on January 5. The perpetrators were shielded by the Delhi police and given total impunity,” the AISA said.
