A law faculty student of Jamia Milia Islamia was targeted and attacked by some of his fellow students and their outsider friends for celebrating Diwali on the premises of the university on October 12.
Police said that since the sections under which the FIR was registered were bailable, they allowed the accused students to be released on bail.
Narrating the sequence of events, the victim, Ajay, said, “I along with other students celebrated the festival of lights at day time on October 12. In the evening, I went to attend the fresher's party where Ehteshamul Haq, Qazi Ammar Alam, Jawed Malik and Sahil Ahmed were present. They along with three other students, who were outsiders, started verbally abusing me and also against Hindu religion. The verbal argument escalated when one of them said, “Ye hi hai Kafir, pakad lo bhagne na paye”.
“They encircled me and Salil Ahmed came forward and made provocative statements with an intention to spread communal violence,” Ajay said in the FIR.
As per a written complaint by the ninth semester law student, Ajay Kumar Jha, he was standing near Gate No. 8 of the university.
“First they slapped me so hard that I suffered injury in my ear, then they pounced on me and started beating and punching me. I sustained internal injuries on my backbone, head, neck and chest,” he said in the FIR.
However, a senior police investigator said that since it was a fresher's party, it was just a minor scuffle between the senior students of law Faculty, Jamia Milia Islamia and the freshers. However, as per the FIR, Ajay stated that the group shouted at him saying, “Saale ko itna maaro ki ye kafir Diwali manana bhul jayen,.”(Beat him so much that he forgets to celebrate Diwali)
Other students made a call to 100 after which the complainant was rushed by the police to the Holy Family hospital. Based on the written complaint, police registered a case under Sections 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt.), 341(Punishment for wrongful restraint.) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code at the Jamia Nagar police station.
Romil Baaniya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) said, “A case was registered. Since the Sections were bailable, they were allowed to go after necessary paper work was completed.” However, repeated attempts to elicit a response from the Jamia administration failed as the spokesperson was not available for comments.