Delhi Police lathi charged the unruly students during a recent rally in support of Hyderabad student Rohith Vemula. The incident took place at Jhandewalan area in central Delhi.
"We were stopped at the barricade and policemen asked us to use another road. Suddenly, a group of men appeared out of nowhere and started thrashing us mercilessly,"
said a protester.
The police has asked protesters to file a complaint and that the matter will be investigated.
“Students were brutally beaten by police and people in civil dress who must be RSS people. We were peacefully leading a protest march, but extreme force was used on us.
Even girls were not spared and beaten up by male cops,†Shweta, a student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said.
"There was no warning. I was standing near the police and all I heard was 'one, two, three charge'," said independent journalist Rahul, whose camera was allegedly snatched when he was filming the incident. Rahul said when he tried to retrieve his camera, "they pushed lathis into my stomach."
“The protesters got violent and attacked police personnel. We had to resort to mild lathi charge. They were detained and later released. We will look into allegation against any particular officer,†a police officer said. They claimed that the protesters were an "unruly, rowdy and aggressive crowd" that broke two cordons before the police acted.
AAP Delhi convener Dilip Pandey tweeted, "What a new low in Indian politics. Male cops beaten up female protesters, RSS workers too joined DP in this brutality (sic)."
By Premji
