NHRC report on Jamia violence states police action not handled professionally, observes Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Friday observed that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report did not given a clean chit to anyone in the violence that took place at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in December last year. The report also stated that police action was not 'handled professionally.'

"The NHRC also states that the entire police action was not handled very professionally. It doesn't give a clean chit to anyone," a division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan said while interrupting the arguments of counsel of the Delhi Police, who was citing NHRC report to justify police action at the varsity.

Defending police action, Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi said that the NHRC report also did not say that police action as a whole was unnecessary. He said that the destruction of private and public property, and burning of vehicles near the varsity and said that there were apprehensions that even outsiders entered the University.

Lekhi said that while the entire police action was warranted, there were some individual cases of minor infractions, and highlighted that the NHRC reports also criticises the use of social media for circulating false and malicious gossip.

He claimed that the protest was a mask for something far grave and serious and stressed that there has to be an intelligence inquiry, after which the court adjourned the matter for further hearing on August 28 saying it needs time to go through the NHRC report on the violence.

The High Court was hearing a batch of pleas including one filed by lawyer Nabila Hasan through advocates Sneha Mukherjee and Siddharth Seem seeking action against cops over Jamia violence. The pleas had accused the forces for using extreme, ruthless and excessive physical force and violence against unarmed and peaceful students.

Several protesters and policemen had sustained injuries during a protest against the new citizenship law near the Jamia Millia Islamia University campus on December 15. Some public transports were set on fire and other public properties were also damaged in the protest.

On December 15 last year, the Delhi Police had thrown teargas shells inside the campus, allegedly barged into the premises and allegedly dragged students out of the library before assaulting them.

( With inputs from ANI )