JNU Violence By Anti-Left Group, Admits Police

Team (SIT) probing the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has identified 37 persons from a 60-member WhatsApp group named "unity against left" and 10 of them were allegedly involved in the brutal assault that left 34 teachers and students injured.

This admission came from SIT head Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Joy Tirkey, a day after he tried to link the January 5 violence inside the campus to the in-fight among the left groups, naming the university's student union president Aishe Ghosh and eight others, seven of whom belonged to the left parties. Ghose debunked the photographs circulated by police, claiming these related to skirmishes before January 5 and not on the night of January 5 when masked persons went on a series of assaults on students and teachers.

Those identified by the DCP on Friday were Aishe Ghosh, Chunchun Kumar, Pankaj Mishra, Waskar Vijay, Sucheta Talukraj, Priya Ranjan, Dolan Sawant, Yogendra Bhardwaj and Vikas Patel. None has been detained but they will be questioned, the DCP said.

He, however, said nothing about action against the members of "unity against left" group allegedly created against the left parties the same day of the violence. He just said 10 persons identified so far for the violence were outsiders and not the JNU students. They were wearing masks to escape identification.

Among those visiting the JNU on Saturday included Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who spoke to Aishe Ghosh and congratulated the union for an uncompromised fight.