By Sumit Singh And Syed Abubakr
New Delhi: “I don’t think any justice will be done to, but we don’t have the luxury of not fighting,” said Mohammad Mustafa, a victim of the police violence inside the campus of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, a centrally funded university in New Delhi, on 15 December 2019.
More than five years on, nine petitions to prosecute the Delhi police are pending before the Delhi High Court, and no police personnel have been held responsible for the violence that left at least three students badly injured and blinded one in his left eye.
A video captured police personnel entering the university library and beating unarmed students with their batons as a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, a controversial law that made religion the basis of granting Indian citizenship, turned violent.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing some of the petitioners, told the court that 91 students were injured in the incident. A Newslaundry report published on the day of the violence said, “nearly 400 students have reportedly been injured”. The Indian Express reported that the university’s vice-chancellor, Najma Akhtar, said nearly 200 students had been injured.
Since 18 December 2019, when the first petition was listed before the Delhi High Court, the matter has had 45 hearings. The last hearing was on 12 November 2024. The next one is scheduled for 27 January 2025.
Outside and near the campus, protesters—mostly students and residents of the Jamia locality—had reportedly clashed with police. Violence broke out after protesters stopped moving towards Parliament. At least six buses and over 50 vehicles were set ablaze in Mathura Road, New Friends Colony, Jamia Nagar and Sarai Julena.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.