Parliamentary panel questions Delhi Police chief over Ramjas, Gurmehar issues

Delhi police commissioner Amulya Patnaik on Tuesday was questioned by non-BJP members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs to provide details of action taken over the clashes at Delhi's University's Ramjas College and threats to student Gurmehar Kaur.

According to sources, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs met on Tuesday and was scheduled to have a presentation from Delhi Police over the demands for grants.

However, opposition members on the panel said they wanted to know details about the clashes outside Ramjas College and the rape and death threats to Kaur who had launched a campaign on social media against the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

A member of the committee, who did not want to be named, told IANS that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in the committee tried to obstruct other members from asking questions related to the Ramjas violence.

"The BJP members said it is a current issue, we should not ask question about it, and tried to disrupt the proceedings," the panel member said.

However, chairman of the committee, former Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the members can go ahead with their questions.

"We asked the commissioner about the situation, he said he would inform us by the afternoon over the action taken. However, before that it came out that an FIR has been lodged in the case of the student who was threatened," the member said.

The panel member said that Patnaik told them that the police is closely monitoring the situation and assured serious action.

Clashes took place at Delhi University's Ramjas college on February 22 after ABVP members forced the cancellation of a seminar and then disrupted a march.

Kaur, a student of Lady Shri Ram college, launched an online campaign against the ABVP, for which she received rape and death threats. She withdrew on from the campaign on Tuesday morning.

She has been provided police protection, and an FIR has been registered by Delhi police against unidentified perpetrators.

--IANS

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