A day after being named by the Delhi Police as one of the nine suspects identified in the JNU violence case, on Saturday, 11 January, Aishe Ghosh, JNU Students’ Union president hit back saying that the police and the campus administration were acting in tandem with the ABVP.
Addressing a press conference at the campus, Ghosh said that she had merely gone to help students at the Periyar Hostel “who had put out SOS calls as masked men gathered outside” on 4 January.
The police had put out a screenshot from a video claiming that Ghosh had led a group of violent comrades outside Periyar Hostel.
Responding to the allegation, Ghosh said, “I was neither wearing a mask nor carrying any weapon. You expect me to pull down masks of those gathered or help students stuck inside?”
Lashing out at VC Jagadesh Kumar, she said that he had failed to contain violence in the campus and that the only way out is for him to resign.
“We can’t cooperate with this Vice Chancellor as he doesn’t deserve it. We have told MHRD that sacking him is the only option,” Ghosh said.
Meanwhile, JNUSU demanded that students should be allowed to register while paying the old structure for the academic fee.
“We will be registering with our academic fee, but will not accept or pay the proposed hike in hostel fee,” Ghosh added.
Speaking on the Delhi Police PC, Satish Yadav, a member of JNUSU said, “The fact that only affiliations of Left union members were mentioned and that the association of two ABVP members was hidden shows that the Delhi Police is supporting the ABVP.”
He added that the police had held a presser in-between investigations, which is unusual. Regular classes at JNU are scheduled to resume from 13 January, Vice Chancellor Kumar had earlier said, after a meeting with officials from HRD Ministry.
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