Three policemen suspended over Ramjas violence

Officer regretted the attack on journalists, students and promised fair probe to punish the guilty

Delhi Police on Thursday suspended three policemen on charges of assaulting some students and journalists when two student groups clashed at the Ramjas College in New Delhi a day earlier.

"We have suspended two Head Constables and a Constable for assualting students and media persons," Joint Commissioner Dependra Pathak told IANS.

The suspension came after Special Commissioner of Police S B K Singh addressed hundreds of students protesting outside the police headquarters here and promised action against his guilty colleagues.

Singh, the senior most officer in charge of the area in North Campus of Delhi University where the violence occurred on Wednesday, said he was not aware who ordered baton charge at the campus during the clashes between activists of the Leftist All India Students Association (AISA) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The officer regretted the attack on journalists and students and promised a "fair probe" by the Crime Branch to "punish the guilty".

"I have asked journalists to give me video footage of the lathi-charge," he said.

Singh also said that a desk would be set up to receive complaints and the video footage of Wednesday's incident.

After the officer spoke, students and teachers called off the protest outside the police headquarters which caused traffic snarls for hours in one of the busiest parts of the capital.

But AISA said it was not satisfied with the police assurance.

Its leader Kawalpreet Kaur regretted the delay in registering a case of violence against ABVP activists.

"We met the Joint Commissioner who shamefully denied us our right to get the FIR filed (against ABVP) and told us to be satisfied with the police version," Kaur said.

"We will not agree to the police narrative of the incident which calls the entire violence a riot between two groups of Left and Right."

Another AISA leader, Rama Naga, told IANS that students would hand over evidences to police. "We have all the evidence including photographs, videos and medico-legal report of those injured."

Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar said he had sought a report from the Delhi University.

But the minister refused to speak about the largescale violence at the Ramjas College when ABVP activists first foiled a seminar where a speaker was JNU student Umar Khalid, arrested last year for sedition, and then attacked students and others taking out a protest. Many journalists were also injured.

AISA supporters claimed that police stood mutely when the ABVP went on the rampage.

The Delhi Union of Journalists expressed anguish over the attacks on journalists "by protesters as well as police who did not wear nametags".

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas held Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh responsible for the violence and appealed to students to debate in a democratic way in case of divergence of views.

The CPI-M condemned the violence by ABVP "goons" and denounced Delhi Police, describing the Ramjas incident a "shameful example of the violent intolerance backed by the state machinery of the RSS-BJP combine".