JNU faculty addressing the media and students on campus on Monday
The security rosters and records of duty staff of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Sunday evening have either been missing or "not updated," the teachers at the university revealed at a press conference on the campus on Monday. “There is a duty roster that the security guards here follow. There wasn’t any written record of who was on duty last night at the Sabarmati Hostel,” said Bikramaditya Chaudhary, the former secretary of the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA), accompanied by other faculty members.
Sabarmati Hostel presented a sorry picture on Monday, with shattered panes and shards lying all over the floor.
Chaudhary said that the masked assaulters even ran amok inside the faculty block and other campus buildings. He noted that security rosters of even these buildings had not been up to date.
“In the morning today, I checked the security roster of the guard on duty at the faculty block and the name from last night was missing,” the academic said.
Levelling serious allegations on the conduct of Delhi Police in last night’s assault on university’s students and faculty members, Chaudhary told media persons at the venue that her wife, on her way to their home in the faculty block last evening, frantically reached out to Delhi Police and the Women’s Helpline but to no avail.
“My wife called up the Delhi Police’s Women Helpline at least 15 times, after being chased by the mob, whose members wielded wooden sticks, iron roads and other sharp objects meant to cause bodily harm. She called them up again this morning, but she is yet to receive a response,” recounted the faculty member.
“Neither did SOS calls to the University Registrar and the Chief Security Officer received any response,” revealed Chaudhary.
A car with shattered windshields, seen on JNU campus on Monday (India TV News photo)
Saugato Bhaduri, a professor of English at the university, said at the press meet that he personally dialled Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik when the violence was ongoing on Sunday. “He didn’t take any of my calls,” he said.
Professor Shukla Sawant, another eyewitness to Sunday’s night’s assault, questioned the coincidence of the security on campus as well police going incommunicado at the same time between 4:30 PM and 7 PM, when the assault was taking place.
The academic at the School of Arts and Aesthetics said that her complaint to the Chief Security Officer on the last night’s lapse had not been acted upon as of Monday evening.
“It was all an organised act of violence targeting students. Even Delhi Police seemed to have been instructed not to intervene while it was ongoing,” she said.
Professor Sawant alleged that Delhi Police personnel at the main entrance to the campus didn’t even make way for the ambulance at first. “I offered the injured students a car ride to the hospital,” she said, adding that it was only after some time the first batch of violence victims were rushed in ambulance to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
Reiterating her claim over the involvement of JNU administration and Delhi Police in the assault, Sawant said that armed goons packed in several cars awaited the victims at AIIMS.
Incidentally, a similar claim has been made by Swaraj Abhiyan President Yogendra Yadav, who said that he had been assaulted on three occasions on Sunday evening. Stating that he had been attacked by a Delhi Police inspector at AIIMS Trauma Centre after Monday midnight, Yadav noted that he had also witnessed the presence of cars full of goons at the AIIMS.
A total of 28 students and faculty members, including JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) President Ayesha Ghose were injured in Sunday night’s assault on the campus by masked invaders. Ghose was discharged from the hospital on Monday.
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