Delhi Police on Wednesday detained 28 students of Delhi University who alleged that they were beaten up by police when they were assembling for their hunger strike inside the campus to demand complete reopening of the university. However, police denied using force.

Members of the Left-affiliated All India Students’ Association (AISA) and other student bodies have been on a hunger strike for two days to press their demand of reopening the campus.

In a statement, the students claimed that the Delhi Police unleashed brutal violence upon their peaceful hunger strike as they were assembling for the third day.

 “We were beaten, our comrades Manik and Ayush, who are on hunger strike for more than 48 hours were violently thrashed by the Delhi Police. Several others have been injured,” they said.

“We appeal to all friends and comrades to assemble at the Special Cell Office, Maurice Nagar,” the statement added. According to a senior police official, the protesters had been staging a hunger strike for two days from October 25 to 26. “Information was received that there was a meeting scheduled by them on October 27 regarding this and they were planning to strengthen their strike,” he said.

“Sensing the situation, we had deployed a police force and eight women and 20 men who were part of the protest have been detained peacefully as per legal protocol. Our force contained over 30 female staff and two platoons of male force from our end as part of security arrangements to ensure no untoward incident takes place,” he said.

Denying all allegations of the protesters, the Delhi Police asserted that no use of force was exercised and that they have not received any medico legal case from any of the protesters yet.

The detention was done peacefully and the detained protesters will be released soon, the police added.