ABVP, Left-backed groups clash at JNU; vice-chancellor warns of strict action
New Delhi (PTI): Some students of Jawaharlal Nehru University were injured in a clash between two groups over the selection of election committee members, following which Vice-Chancellor Santishree D Pandit on Friday said strict action will be taken against those involved irrespective of their political affiliation.
The violence occurred in the university's School of Languages building late on Thursday night. Students from both Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Left-backed groups have filed police complaints against each other.
The complaints were registered at Vasant Kunj North police station. A university official said some students have been admitted to Safdarjung Hospital.
"We received information about the clashes on the campus at 1.15 am. At least four students were injured. Multiple complaints have been received from both sides. Further inquiry is on," a police officer told PTI.
University Vice-Chancellor Santishree D Pandit said the administration will look into the matter and take strict action.
"The JNU (students' union) elections are conducted by students. It is their responsibility to ensure that it is a peaceful democratic process. The Inter-hostel Administration (IHA) oversees the conduct of the polls. Any complaints by the students' body will be looked into by the IHA. Very strict action will be taken against those found guilty irrespective of their political affiliation," she told PTI.
The vice-chancellor also said once the medicolegal cases of students severely injured in the violence are done, the authority concerned will prepare a report and take appropriate action.
Pandit warned the students that any act of violence on campus may lead to deferring the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) polls further.
A video clip of the incident showed a man thrashing students with a stick while in another, a person is seen throwing a bicycle at students. Other videos also purportedly showed individuals being mobbed and beaten up by a group while security personnel of the university tried to rescue them.
The ABVP told PTI that two students seen in one of the videos beating others with a stick and throwing a bicycle were members of its JNU unit and claimed that they were trying to defend themselves.
On the other hand, Left-backed groups alleged that ABVP members, disgruntled by the selection of the election committee members, attacked JNUSU office bearers and other students.
JNUSU Joint Secretary Mohammad Danish, who was presiding the School General Body Meeting along with JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, claimed that he received threats to his life from ABVP members because of his religious identity.
He also alleged that he was held hostage during the meeting.
"On the last day of the General Body Meeting at the School of Languages, ABVP resorted to another round of violence at the end of the meeting. Initially attempting to disrupt the selection process for the election committee, the ABVP resorted to violence against students when thwarted by JNU students," the Left-backed All India Students Association (AISA) claimed in a statement.
"Accompanied by Kanhaiya Kumar, a student of Japanese MA and the ring-leader of the SL (School of Languages) unit, the ABVP goons were seen wielding rods and targeting and beating common students indiscriminately. They singled out Muslim students and objected to the names of Muslim students being proposed for the election committee," it alleged.
The Left students' group claimed their members Shaurya and Madhurima Kundu, both pursuing PhD, and Priyam and Anwesha, students of MA Linguistics, were chased and beaten up by ABVP members. It also accused the JNU administration of shielding the RSS-affiliated student group.
The ABVP, in turn, accused the Left group of foul play in electing the candidates of the election committee and alleged that the politburo chief in the General Body Meeting tried to provide undue advantage to SFI candidates.
"In General Body Meeting at the School of Languages, the chief of Politburo unilaterally declared that first election committee candidates who have secured more than two-third of the seats will be automatically declared winners. In the counting process if 100 hands are being raised to support a candidate, then the Politburo chief counts it as 300.
"The open rigging in the counting of votes and imposition of self-made rules is a manifestation of autocracy akin to the system of Politburo," the ABVP said in a statement while claiming that its members were injured in the attack by the Left groups.
VIDEO | A clash broke out between ABVP and Left-backed groups at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, on Thursday night. The ruckus was over the selection of election committee members at the School of Languages.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 1, 2024
(Source: Third Party) pic.twitter.com/vQV991KaIe
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RAW official plotted to kill Sikh separatist in US, alleges US Department of Justice
Washington (PTI): An Indian RAW official was involved in a plot to kill a separatist Sikh American national last summer in and around the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, federal prosecutors alleged on Thursday in a damaging indictment filed in a US court in New York.
The official identified as Vikas Yadav, 39, was employed by the Cabinet Secretariat, which houses India's foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the federal prosecutors claimed.
Yadav, who is believed to be no longer a government employee, has been charged with three counts, including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He “remains at large”, the Department of Justice said.
His co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta was arrested in Czechoslovakia last year and is languishing in a US jail after extradition.
“Today’s charges demonstrate that the Justice Department will not tolerate attempts to target and endanger Americans and to undermine the rights to which every US citizen is entitled,” US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said.
“The defendant, an Indian government employee, allegedly conspired with a criminal associate and attempted to assassinate a US citizen on American soil for exercising their First Amendment rights,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The Indian government has denied its association or involvement with such a plot to kill an American national on US soil. Following allegations by the US, New Delhi had set up an inquiry committee to investigate the matter. The US has expressed satisfaction on cooperation from India on this.
Unsealing of the second indictment comes within 48 hours of an Indian Enquiry Committee visiting here to have a meeting with an inter-agency team of officials from the FBI, Department of Justice and the State Department on these issues.
“We are satisfied with the cooperation. It continues to be an ongoing process. We continue to work with them on that, but we do appreciate the cooperation, and we appreciate them updating us on their investigation as we update them on ours,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.
“The meeting that occurred yesterday – we updated – we being the US government broadly – updated members of the Committee of Inquiry about the investigation that the United States has been conducting. We’ve received an update from them on the investigation that they have been conducting. It was a productive meeting, and I will leave it at that,” Miller said.
“They did inform us that the individual, who was named in the Justice Department indictment, is no longer an employee of the Indian government,” he added.
Running into 18 pages, the indictment that was unsealed Thursday posts a pictures of Yadav in a military dress and also gives a picture of two persons exchanging dollars in a car in New York, which federal prosecutors said were the money being paid to the alleged killer by a person on behalf of Gupta and Yadav to assassinate the Sikh Separatist leader in New York. The picture is dated June 9, 20203 The name of the Sikh separatist, a US citizen, is not mentioned in the indictment.
“By indicting RAW Official Vikash Yadav in “Murder For Hire” Plot, US Government has reassured its commitment to fundamental constitutional duty to protect the life, liberty and freedom of expression of the US Citizen at home and abroad,” Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel to separatist Sikh for Justice, said in a statement after the indictment was released by the Department of Justice.
The damaging indictment alleges that Yadav along with his co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta plotted to kill the Sikh separatist leader in the summer of 2023. For this Gupta hired an individual to do the kill job. The unidentified individual, who was an informant to the FBI asked for USD100,000 for the job and received USD15,000 as an advance payment on June 9, 2023.
It was during the same month that President Joe Biden had invited Prime Minister Modi on a historic state visit, which took place on June 22. According to the indictment, Yadav told Gupta and the hired killer not to do the job immediately before or during the State visit.
The indictment reveals that there was a link between the murder of another Sikh separatist Nijjar in Canada during the same period. Federal prosecutors have shared communications between Yadav, Gupta and the alleged killer on the two incidents.
“A few minutes later, Yadav messaged Gupta, instructing: "let them also verify by their own... if they are able to get some proof that he is inside..it will be a go ahead from us," a reference to giving the green light to assassinate the Victim as soon as it could be verified that he was at his residence,” the federal prosecutors alleged.
The Department of Justice said the victim is a vocal critic of the Government of India and leads a U.S.-based organization that advocates for the secession of Punjab, a state in northern India that is home to a large population of Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India.
“The victim has publicly called for some or all of Punjab to secede from India and establish a Sikh sovereign state called Khalistan, and the Government of India has banned the Victim and his separatist organization from India. U.S. law enforcement detected and disrupted the plot to murder the Victim,” it said.
