Social media platforms erupted on Sunday after a CCTV footage of police brutality inside the library of Jamia Millia Islamia went viral. The video is related to the alleged police brutality on the campus on December 15. The 48-minute-long video emerged purportedly showing paramilitary and police personnel beating up students in the library 15. It instantly evoked sharp response from several political leaders, including Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Meanwhile, Jamia Millia Islamia administration denied to have issued any video footage related to December 15, 2019 violence. They said that the said video was released by people behind the Jamia Coordination Committee and is being looked into.
However, another video of over two-minute duration was accessed by a section of the media that clearly showed that the miscreants who were part of the large scale violence and vandalism inside and outside of the university campus, entering the library and some of them carrying stones. Those in the video could be seen ushering alleged rioters inside the library and putting up a large study table to block the doors being opened.
Special Commissioner of Police (Crime and Intelligence) Praveer Ranjan said that the video clips were being investigated by the cyber experts and they will take action after the identity of the people seen in the video is established.
The 48-second video, which appears to be a CCTV footage, purportedly shows some seven to eight paramilitary and police personnel entering the Old Reading Hall and beating up students with batons. The paramilitary and police personnel are also seen covering their faces with handkerchiefs.
Reacting to the videos, Jamia Millia Islamia administration clarified that it has not released the new video, which is circulating on social media showing some men in paramilitary and police uniform beating up students in the university's library on December 15.
"It has come to our notice that some video with regard to police brutality in Dr Zakir Husain Library of the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) is in circulation. This is to clarify that the video has not been released by the university," the institute's public relations officer Ahmad Azeem said.
According to the public relations officer, the JCC is spearheading the stir against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens on the Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar Road outside the university''s gate number seven.
"This is to clarify that JCC is not an official body of the university. Any communication from JCC should not be taken as version of the university," Azeem said. The video was released by the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), a group comprising Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) students and alumni. The group was formed after the alleged police brutality on the campus on December 15.
The Jamia Coordination Committee said it received the video from an "anonymous" source. It also said the university has shared video footage of the police action in the library with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which is probing the episode.
Sharing the video on Twitter, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said if no action is taken even after the video, then the Government' s intentions will stand exposed. She also accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Delhi Police of "lying" that Jamia students were not beaten up inside the library.
"Look at how Delhi Police is blindly assaulting students in the library. A boy is flashing his book but the policeman is continuing to attack him with batons," she said in a tweet in Hindi. CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the police''s act is "unconscionable" and "unacceptable".
BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya, however, claimed that the video of purported police brutality at the Jamia Millia Islamia in December also showed that students in the library were actually "stone pelters". In a tweet, Malviya tagged the video and claimed that the students in the library were wearing masks and reading shut books. They were "looking anxiously towards the entrance rather than being relaxed and immersed in studies, which is what a library is meant for", he said. "Anatomy of Jamia rioters who tried hiding in the library after a stone pelting session?" Malviya asked. "Good of Jamia rioters to self identify themselves. Agencies must use the video as evidence."
It may be recalled that Jamia Millia, had turned into a battlefield on December 15, 2019 as police entered the campus to look for ''outsiders'' who were reportedly involved in incidents of violence and arson a few metres away from the educational institute during a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. A law student of the university had alleged that he lost vision in one eye due to the police action.