Another video of 15 Dec Jamia violence surfaces; CCTV footage shows trapped students as Delhi Police personnel break surveillance cameras

Another video in which Delhi police and paramilitary forces can be seen attacking unarmed students of Jamia Millia Islamia University inside its library reading room has emerged on Monday. In a five-minute long video, released by Maktoob media , several students can be seen entering the old reading room, dragging a table and whatever they can get their hands on to block entry for the cops.

The video further shows the paramilitary and police personnel, in riot gear, storming into the library, removing the tables and then assaulting the students with lathis. Fearful students, including women, can be seen pleading with the police with folded hands as they attempt escaping from the library.

One can also see students trying to desperately break out the reading room as the police continue to assault them. The angle of the CCTV (in the video) is such that one cannot see what is happening in the extreme left (see screengrab). But it seems like the entrance is not big enough for the students to escape. At the start of the video, one can see the police break down the door to enter the reading room.

Soon though, the video shows more police and paramilitary force barging in through the other side of the door and now the students are seen trapped between two sets of uniformed men. The video released by  Maktoob media  is among a series of videos which purportedly show what happened on 15 December at Jamia Milia Islamia. The police have launched a separate investigation to verify the veracity of these videos.

Maktoob Media said it got access to the extended version of the CCTV footage which was released as “uncut exclusive” visuals by media outlets. They claimed that when students used footage of horrific police attack on unarmed students, police released a video compilation which omits police violence. They further added that the video put out by the police and some sections of the media only “showed students entering the PG reading room and blocking the way.”

“This video shows what happens after “uncut exclusive” inside the room.”

Responding to the video released by the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) showing police and paramilitary forces entering the university library and attacking the students, the  Delhi Police’s Crime Branch released another video in which people can be allegedly seen with stones in their hands.

The Crime Branch’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) released a CCTV footage on Sunday in which people can be seen in a balcony with stones in their hands. The video has been accessed by India Today, and Firstpost cannot independently verify the veracity of the video.

Another video went viral on social media, showing persons being ushered into the library, allegedly with stones in some of their hands. As soon as 15-20 persons entered the library, a table was dragged and placed to block the entry point. The Crime Branch sources told India Today that the police were trying to locate these men after some vehicles were torched outside the university during Jamia violence.

However, as per a JCC statement, students hid in the room to remain safe amid the violence.

On Sunday, before Delhi Police released their video, the JCC had released another video (first in the series of many to come), dated 15 December, 2019, showing uniformed personnel entering the Old Reading Hall in Jamia Millia Islamia at 6.08 pm and beating up students with batons and lathis. The video is from the same evening when police and paramilitary personnel entered the campus amid protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Tear gas shells were fired on campus and students were lathi-charged. Over 100 students were injured, but two months later, no FIR has been registered on the complaints filed against the police by the university and students.

The university, however, clarified that the first video was not released by it.

“It has come to our notice that some video with regard to police brutality in the 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,” PTI quoted the institute’s public relations officer Ahmad Azeem as saying.

According to the public relations officer, the JCC is not an official body of the university.

“This is to clarify that the JCC is not an official body of the university. Any communication from the JCC should not be taken as version of the university” Ahmad Azeem told PTI.

The university, on 15 December, had turned into a battlefield 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.

The JCC 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.

With inputs from PTI