The students said they were being harassed by the investigation agency that is allegedly putting them in discomfort by randomly pasting notices on the walls instead of giving them to the authority.

Sneha Agrawal | Posted by Ashna Kumar

The violent protests that led to the breaking of glass door and flower pots outside Dean of the Students office in Jawaharlal Nehru University created ripples on Thursday afternoon. The peaceful protest by ABVP students turned aggressive after Umesh Kadam, the dean, took his sweet time to meet them. The protests were against the public humiliation caused when the court summon letters were pasted on the walls and doors of the hostels of the nine suspected students in the Najeeb Ahmed case . JNU student Najeeb had gone missing from his hostel on October 16 last year. The students demanded the resignation of the hostel warden and caretaker who allegedly refused to accept the court summons on their behalf.

The students said they were being harassed by the investigation agency that is allegedly putting them in discomfort by randomly pasting notices on the walls instead of giving them to the authority. They added that they had not been given enough time to seek legal aid. The suspects have been identified as Ankit Rai, Vijendra Thakur, Vikrant Kinar, Aishwarya Pratap Singh, Pushpesh Jha, Sunil Pratap Singh, Arnab Chakrobarty, Abhijeet Kumar and Santosh Kumar. They will appear in the court today. Some of these students, who are also associated with the ABVP in JNU, claim that they are being targeted because of their ideology and religion. They say the CBI’s insensitive investigation despite complete cooperation is causing harassment and public humiliation, both inside the campus and back home. “People call us murderers. When we walk in the campus they look at us with strange expressions. We are missing out on our sessional tests and lectures because of the random timings of our questioning. We have not even been named as accused in the FIR but are still being treated like one,” said Aishwarya Pratap Singh, a second-year master’s student. Another suspect, Arnab Chokrobarty, a third-year PhD student, calls himself an unfortunate bystander who made the “mistake” of informing the hostel warden of the altercation that Najeeb had allegedly got into with some students.

“On October 14 last year, I heard some noises from Najeeb’s hostel. I went there and saw a crowd. I enquired but nobody knew what was happening. I decided to inform the warden. Two days later I found my name in the complaint which accused me of thrashing Najeeb,” Chokrobarty says.

“The incident pushed me into depression. The investigation agencies put us through uncomfortable questions. I am currently in treatment for depression. My career and image in the campus have been affected. My parents worry all the time,” he adds.

The students want the polygraph test to be conducted on other witnesses as well and not just on them. “One of our fellow students, also a suspect, recently underwent a lung surgery, but the CBI has not spared even him. We took his medical certificate to the court and the next thing we see is the warrant against him,” said Saurabh Sharma, ABVP leader, JNU. “Two of the suspects have cleared the entrance for both IB and SSB. They were forced to leave their preparation for the next level and join the investigation despite several requests to change the date,” Sharma alleged. Kadam, who finally met the students, said that he would arrange a meeting with the vice chancellor and address their queries.