New Delhi:
Delhi Police has identified 37 of 60 members of a WhatsApp group called ‘Unity against Left’, which authorities believe is linked to last week’s mob attack on JNU students and faculty, police sources said today. Around 10 of those identified so far are believed to outsiders – i.e., they are not students of the university – who took part in the brutal and unchecked assault that left 34 people injured. The sources also said groups they have linked to the violence – Left-backed student outfits and BJP-linked ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) – both took help from outsiders. They said JNU students facilitated the entry of these outsiders into the campus.
One of the 37 individuals identified is Manish Jangid, who is Secretary of the ABVP’s JNU unit, and has told NDTV that he had no knowledge of being added to the group. “My phone had broken. When I got it repaired then I got to know that I had been added to the group,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, JNU Vice Chancellor Jagadeesh M Kumar held his first meeting with students this morning.
In photographs shared by news agency ANI, Mr Kumar, who yesterday was called to a meet with the Education Ministry, accused “illegal students staying in hostels” may have participated in the violence.
“This is a problem… many illegal students are staying in hostels. They could be outsiders, they maybe participating in any possible violence because they have nothing to do with the university,” he said.
However, the JNU students union has claimed it is not part of the meeting and has said the Vice Chancellor has not met any of their injured students.
