Jamia violence: Delhi Police files chargesheet, names JNU student Sharjeel Imam ‘instigator’
In the chargesheet, police have attached CCTV footage, phone records, and statements of over 100 witnesses as evidence.
The Delhi Police on Tuesday said they filed a chargesheet in connection with the December 15 violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University and named Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imam an “instigator”, ANI reported. A court in Delhi sent Imam to judicial custody till March 3, according to PTI.
No student from Jamia has been named. The police said the chargesheet was filed on February 13. Empty bullet cartridges belonging to 3.2 mm pistol were found from the spot during investigation, they added.
So far, 17 people have been arrested for the violence – nine from New Friends Colony and eight from Jamia area. In the chargesheet, the police have attached CCTV footage, call detail records and statements of over 100 witnesses as evidence.
Violence had erupted in the area around Jamia Millia Islamia university during an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest march by the university’s students. The Delhi Police was accused of using excessive force to quell the demonstrations and of storming the campus. The police claimed its action was justified as the protestors had allegedly injured its personnel and set buses on fire.
On February 15, the Jamia Coordination Committee, which has organised protests over the last two months, tweeted CCTV footage that appears to show Delhi Police personnel assaulting students in a reading hall in the university on the evening of December 15. A law student had lost his eye in the attack. Delhi Police had said it will look into the video.
PhD scholar Imam is under fire for remarks he allegedly made at Aligarh Muslim University on January 16. In a clip on social media, Imam was purportedly heard telling protestors to “cut off Assam from India” by occupying the “Muslim-dominated Chicken’s Neck”. The comment was widely perceived as a secessionist one, but Imam later claimed that he had called for peaceful protests to “block roads going to Assam” – “basically a call for chakka jam”.