JNU students protesting the rape of 8-year-old lathi charged

THE STUDENTS SAID THE POLICE BEAT THEM UP. THE POLICE DENIED THE ALLEGATIONS

NEWDELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union members have alleged that the students, who were protesting on Monday outside Jammu and Kashmir Bhawan against the rape and murder of an eight-yearold girl in the state, were lathi charged by Delhi Police.

They further alleged that their vice-president was allegedly separately targeted and brutalised by the police. “I was dragged to a separate room at the Tughlaq Road police station, and was beaten by cops,” said Simone Zoya Khan, JNUSU vice president, who added that a cop allegedly also hurled abuses at her. She and her peers were released after a few hours.

Khan also said that though they had protested outside multiple state bhawans before, including the Haryana Bhawan last week, they had never been treated this way.

“We did everything we usually do before protests. We had informed the police about the protest too,” she said.

The JNUSU condemned the “attack” and have released a statement seeking the cops’ explanations.

Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi Range) Ajay Chaudhry denied the allegations made by Khan and said that there was no assault on her. On the allegations of fellow protesters that police lathicharged them, Chaudhry said the protesters were getting violent and needed to be removed from the site for which some mild force was used. He also said that to protest outside any State Bhawan a prior permission is needed which the JNUSU students did not have.