A badly injured Aishe Ghosh has been blamed by the Delhi Police for the violence. No word on the masked goons who spread fear on campus for three hours.

HRD Minister declares JNU stir not justified as fee demands met

Crime Branch probe into JNU violence begins; Aishe Ghosh questioned

Agency Report | New Delhi | 13 January, 2020 | 11:40 PM

Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has declared that the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) stir was no longer justified as the fee issues were sorted out after several rounds of talks with representatives of students and teachers.

“The main demand related to increase in service and utility charges and others has been settled. Thus, continuation of agitation is no longer justified,” Nishank was quoted as saying by the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

He also appealed that institutions of higher education should not be converted into a political arena.

A high-powered committee was set up by the MHRD to restore the normal functioning of JNU through dialogue and to advise the university administration for resolution of contentious issues.

The decision to waive off service and utility charges was taken at a meeting between the panel and the JNU administration on December 11.

Till now over 5,000 students had registered for the winter season, the minister added.

The JNUSU along with students have been protesting against the hike in hostel charges since October 28, last year.

Meanwhile, a team of nearly a dozen Delhi Police Crime Branch sleuths stationed at Jawaharlal Nehru University has started a probe into the Jan 5 campus violence, according to a senior Crime Branch official.

Akshat Awasthi and Rohit Shah, ABVP members, whose faces emerged during a TV channel sting, refused to join the investigation, police said, hoping they would join the probe on Tuesday.

The official said the police called up a “masked woman”, identified as Komal Sharma, but her phone was found to be switched off. “A notice has been sent to her to join the investigation. She is a student of Delhi University’s Daulat Ram College,” said the official.

The police have so far issued notices to 9 accused asking them to join the investigation into the JNU violence. Seven out of the 9 suspects are from Left organisations. Out of the seven accused, three — JNUSU President Aishe Gosh, Bhaskar Vijay and Pankaj — joined the investigation on Monday.

Aishe Gosh was questioned separately on Monday, a senior police officer said, adding one of the questions the police asked her was who had hit her and whether she could identify the suspect. She was also asked how many stitches she received for her head injury.

Ghosh had told a channel that she was hit by an iron rod and that she received 10 stitches on the upper part of her forehead.
The other suspects, Bhaskar Vijay and Pankaj, were questioned together by a Special Investigation Team.

The police are trying to coalesce all the information to form a sequence of violence that rocked the university on Jan 5.
The police have decided to send a legal notice to 37 more people, part of the WhatsApp group involved in the violence.