After two months of police violence inside the campus of Jamia Millia Islamia university CCTV footage from reading room stirs new controversy. The claims of seeing students with ‘stones’ inside the reading room and called out students as ‘rioters’ by India Today is getting backlash as students came out with more and extended visuals that negate their claims.
“We will hold them (media) accountable for the unreasonable trail,” said Aysha Noureen, a member of Jamia coordination committee. ” their motive was to delegitimise the movement and put the students in a bad light, but they underestimated students” she adds.
When fresh footage of police violence came out on February 15, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) released cropped videos to defend police violence, which was carried out by major Television channels.
Alt News on Tuesday morning came out saying that the object which police and India Today claimed as a ‘stone’ is ‘wallet’. Alt News slowed down the video and took screenshots, frame-by-frame and analysed the clip. he was holding a flat black object which could possibly be a mobile phone.
English outlets like Times of India, Mirror Now, Republic Bharat, Times Now, The Quint and DNA ran the news without cross-checking the claims of the police.
Maktoob media on Monday released the extended version of the visual which showed what happened afterwards in the CCTV footage. Police brutality and breach of procedure were evident in the video. the visuals also show police attempt to break the CCTV cameras.
The videos released by the police trying to frame students as ‘rioters’ omitted the part were the rapid action force and police attack the students and break the camera.
“Students are not mad to let students with stones enter and shelter them inside (reading room)”, argued Shamil, a student of sociology. Many students agree that the students were framed just because they look like ‘Kashmiris’.
The same student was falsely claimed to be the student who was injured in the January 30 shooting. Sources close to the student denied the allegation of stone-pelting.
“It was too low from an accountable institution to come out with such misleading visuals, we have no faith in the police now, never did since that day,” says Jamia student Fadhil.
Students argued civil societies to reject the claims by police and demanded a judicial probe.
Visuals of New library building is yet not accessible to many as university administration is reluctant to share it. Many students were strangled and brutally beaten up inside the new library. students argue that the visuals are just the ‘tip of an iceberg’.
