Only fair probe can unmask face of terror

| | New Delhi
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Only fair probe can unmask face of terror

Friday, 10 January 2020 | Navin Upadhyay | New Delhi

Only fair probe can unmask face of terror

Anyone familiar with even the basics of the CrPC will know that the police have absolute right to enter any premises in pursuit of an offender, or if they have genuine reasons to believe that a crime is taking place there. Not only that, the CrPC also authorises the police to go beyond its jurisdiction in the hot pursuit of an offender.

This is made clear in Section 48 of the CrPC which states, “A police officer may, for the purpose of arresting without warrant any person whom he is authorised to arrest, pursue such person into any place in India.”

The criminal code does place restriction on the policemen if they want to enter any premises while pursuing a non-cognisable offence. In that case the police must acquire a search warrant from a magistrate. The murderous crime that took place on the JNU campus on the Sunday night was certainly not a non-cognisable offence.

Taking the argument further, if a man trespasses into a private property on hearing the cries of help of a person shot at by a criminal, will he be arrested or rewarded? Letter and spirit are two dimensions of law. In case of the JNU, the spirit of law has been conveniently sacrificed to justify the police inaction.

The January 5 night of terror has spawned contradictory tales. But one thing stands above the blame game: The police were well informed about the assembly of masked men, wielding sticks, iron rods and hammers, within the JNU premises much before they went on rampage, breaking the skulls and limbs of their “targeted victims”. The cops stood outside the gate and entered the campus only at 8 pm after they got an official “invitation” from Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar to do so.

Why did the cops wait outside when they knew that students were subjected to mayhem by dozens of masked men? And why did the VC take so long to send formal letter permitting the cops to enter the premises?

The answer to these questions hold the key to the conspiracy angle that has been widely in circulation — and not without reason — to project the JNU incident as part of a bigger design.

The police and JNU administration have their own version to justify their inactions. For example, in the FIR, which the police registered on Monday, it has been admitted that the JNU administration alerted the police when skirmishes first broke out at the Periyar hostel around 3.45 pm on Sunday.

What did the police do? Deputy Commissioner of Police (South West) Devender Arya has gone on record claiming that when a PCR van reached outside the campus, around 40-50 lathi-wielding masked men were found to be attacking the students and vandalising property.

Going by Arya’s reported version, the rioters fled after seeing the approach of 15-20 police personnel permanently stationed inside the campus at the directive of the Delhi High Court. So, a sizeable police force is present inside the campus and a posse of policemen is deployed outside. And yet the goons get away freely, and no one is arrested.

Even if we take this on the face value, the police will be expected to take follow up measures to prevent recurrence of such a situation and track the culprits. One would expect the police to at least secure the premises, make inquiries, and try to track the fleeing goons, give them a hot chase, and do nakabandi of nearby areas. They did nothing of this sort. They go back to the cozy confines of their police station, leaving the campus vulnerable for return of terror.

The police claims that DCP Southwest District Devender Arya did enter the campus around 5.15 pm and inspected the situation at Periyar Hostel. He found nothing amiss and returned to the main gate.

Who did the DCP approach? Did he talk to any of the students? Did he try to find out who were the vandals? What sort of enquiry did he make? There are no answers. Only questions begging for answers.

According to the FIR, the police rushed a PCR van to the JNU north gate when they received calls around 7 pm about a “mob attack” and vandalism at Sabarmati T-point and Sabarmati hostel. The cops stationed inside the campus found masked men on the rampage and used public address system to ask them to disperse peacefully while at the gate waited the PCR and cops for permission to enter the campus.

The masked men continued to assault the students at liberty. Only around 8 pm the cops entered the premises. By then the goons had completed their tasks and gone, leaving behind a trail of destruction and bleeding and crying students.

The FIR claims that the administration asked the police to reach the campus at around 3.45 pm and the cops claim that the V-C sent a WhatsApp message to station themselves at the main gate and granted permission  only at 7.45 pm to enter the campus.

This raises more questions. Why the V-C did ask the police to wait at the gate? Didn’t the police know that the situation was grave and goons had unleashed murderous attack on students? After all, the cops had received more than 100 SoS calls from panicky students. Did the police seek permission to enter the campus? What did the cop stationed inside the campus do to contain the situation? Didn’t they alert their bosses that any delay could be fatal? Why didn’t  the police not barge into the campus to arrest the goons?

The V-C by his own admission was present on the campus when the attack took place. Anyone in his position, seeing his students attacked by dozens of masked men could have been terrified. One would expect him to call up the Police Commissioner and even the Home Minister and apprise them of the dangerous situation. Who knows the masked men could have been jehadi terrorists?

The roles of the police and the Vice-Chancellor are under the scanner. More so of the police, which has not arrested anyone even after four days of the attack? It’s the same police which arrest suspects without any evidence even in cases of routine crime. Incidentally, the police have more than 100 video clips and tell tale chat groups messages showing how the attack was preplanned. Some of the messages also claim that the police will not act when the students are bashed up.

If it was a case of a lone wolf attack, the police could be excused. But in the case of such a large scale vandalism and brutality, the failure of the police to arrest even a single culprit is bizarre, to say the least. After all, it was the same Delhi Police which invaded the Jamia university campus without any permission from the Vice Chancellor on December 25 and thrashed the students without discriminating between innocent once and stone peters.

It’s also puzzling as to how do the street lights go off during the attack, and how did all the attackers vanish even when the police was stationed outside the gate.

Nothing the police or the Vice-Chancellor say will satisfy the ‘nay sayers’. Only an impartial probe, led by retired or sitting Supreme Court judge, can restore the confidence of the students and the nation about the intention of the authorities to punish the culprits!

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