The station house officer (SHO) of Haus Khas police station suffered critical head injuries on Friday, after being allegedly assaulted by JNU protesters who along with fellow students and teachers, had taken out a protest march in Delhi. As a result of this attack, the SHO had to be admitted to the hospital.
Since the assault, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi district) Madhur Verma issued a video of the incident, to seek people’s help in identifying the attacker:
Please see and identify this JNU protestor who hit SHO Hauz Khas (standing near barricade) on his head with an umbrella. SHO got serious injury on his head. pic.twitter.com/ITBcLnkzlX
— Madhur Verma (@IPSMadhurVerma) March 23, 2018
One Twitter user closely observed the video and highlighted the alleged assailant:
If these help pic.twitter.com/u89svJ0QpV
— Rosy (@rose_k01) March 23, 2018
He also put out a couple of other videos, one of which he claims shows the JNU protesters throwing barricades and assaulting the police personnel on duty:
Some more so called ‘peaceful’ protesters lifting and throwing barricades and assaulting police personnel on duty. pic.twitter.com/WUzYRqxTxN
— Madhur Verma (@IPSMadhurVerma) March 23, 2018
The protest apparently involved about 1000 JNU students and teachers who attempted to march from their campus towards the parliament street. Some of the issues they were protesting against included, “decision to make attendance compulsory”, “JNU getting autonomy” and “alleged lack of administrative action against JNU Professor Atul Johri, accused of molesting eight girl students”.
This march though saw stiff resistance from the police at the city’s Laxmi Bai Nagar area, where the authorities used means like water cannons and lathi charge to try and disperse the crowd. Post the clashes, about 23 protesters were detained. Since then both sides have made conflicting claims. On one hand, the students claimed that they had permission to march all the way towards the parliament street, the Delhi police’s chief spokesperson alternatively claimed that it was mutually agreed that the march would culminate at the INA market.
In total reports have claimed that about 41 policemen and 35 students suffered injuries in the clashes. It has also been alleged that journalists were manhandled by the police and their equipment was confiscated.
