Police Violence in Jamia and Aligarh Muslim University Violates International Conventions and Indian Court Judgments on Rights of Protestors: Citizens Against Hate

It has been a year since the unceremonious invasion of University campuses by police and the brutality inflicted on the students, at Jamia University and Aligarh Muslim University.

Citizens Against Hate (CAH), a Delhi-based collective, has published a report titled "The Dismantling of Minority Education." With accounts from 209 testimonies and visits to  campuses, hospitals, and police stations, the report lays out a pattern of "violence and continuing criminalisation of students."

It criticises the legal and public legitimisation of hate violence against more than 40,000 students studying at the two universities that spearheaded the anti-CAA protests.

Police violence at the campuses garnered popular support when doctored videos of students purportedly raising slogans like "Hinduon se Azaadi" or "Freedom from Hindus" emerged on social media. These were eventually traced back to the BJP IT Cell and were widely circulated by the party's leaders.

Jamia Millia Islamia

"It felt like a war zone, amongst cries, smoke, and chaos," said a JMI student who was present during the police brutality on December 15.

What is jarring is that not only did the police reportedly deny in court that they fired at students before video evidence proved otherwise.

The police also categorically denied vandalising campus property and assaulting students after damaging surveillance cameras. JMI later reported Rs. 2.66 crores worth of damage by the police.

An important aspect of the violence that came to light was the patterned and selective abuse of Kashmiri students. One disabled male student, who was hiding from the officials with some Kashmiri women who came to his aid, was dragged out by the police. Addressing them, the official said, "Kashmiri saalay, Bharat mein rehna hai to Modi Modi kehna hai" (Bloody Kashmiri, if you want to live in India, you have to chant Modi Modi.")

This happened in a reading hall for M.Phil students. The police, here, destroyed valuable research work when they forcefully snatched the students' laptops to damage them.

When 20-30 Kashmiri men and women were hiding in the library, one student heard a policeman call his comrades by saying that there were Kashmiris inside and that they must be beaten up, referring to the Kashmiris as "atankwadi" or terrorists.

Women were also targeted, sexually assaulted, and physically injured on their private parts. This happened particularly during the protests on February 10, 2020. While male officers sexually harassed female students at the site, female officers abused them by using communal slurs.

"The male police officers were pressing our feet and hands with their boots. They also hit the private parts of a lot of women with their lathis. And when I was detained, as I sat in the bus, the police slapped me, and the female officers lifted my clothes up. They lifted my clothes and beat me, scratched my stomach, punched me, and hit me," read a chilling account.

Medical assistance to students was delayed.

About 80 students were treated at Al Shifa Hospital, 63 at Holy Family Hospital, Delhi, and 3 whose eyes had been severely injured at AIIMS Delhi after the JMI violence on December 15. Testimonies state that the police attempted to prevent the injured students from receiving treatment. Doctors also participated in mocking and taunting the students at the hospitals.

Other injured students were taken to the police station instead of being provided with immediate medical aid. The police did not cooperate with the lawyers who had assembled at the police station and did not allow the students to meet their counsels.

Multiple students continue to be targeted.

FIRs under Sections 124A, 153A, 186, 188, 212, 283, 295, 353, 109, 147, and 34 IPC among others, Sections 25 and 27 of Arms Act, Sections 13, 16, 17, and 18 of the UAPA and Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act have been filed.

Student leaders like Asif Iqbal, Meeran Haider, Safoora Zargar, and Shifa Ur Rehman have been prominently targeted by these FIRs.

Aligarh Muslim University

Protests against the CAA at AMU began on December 10, 2019, and were met first by verbal violence and provocation from the police on the evening of December 15 when the students began protesting the police violence at JMI.

The police began firing rubber bullets and tear gas shells into the protesting crowd an hour into the protest.

They entered the guest houses and the mosque within the campus and indiscriminately attacked protestors and other residents on campus. The police broke into the hostels in the next two hours. Students informed the police that the protestors had dispersed and waved white handkerchiefs at them, but to no avail.

"At around 10:00 pm, we heard a lot of gunshots and noise from outside. We ran outside to see what was happening. I was terrified, I hadn't seen anything like this ever happening in my life… We were repeatedly saying from inside the room that we were not protesting, we were just studying in the room and were not involved in any of the protests as our examination was going on. But they didn't stop abusing…When they couldn't open the door, they broke the window of our room…and started firing rubber bullets and teargas shells. One tear gas shell exploded inside the room…we started choking and were compelled to come out…they began to beat us brutally… I received a head injury there," said a hostel student.

Around 60 students suffered serious injuries and so escaped police detention.

A student's right hand had to be amputated, another was suffering repeated seizures after being hit on the head by a lathi, and a third was shot by a rubber bullet in the head. They were admitted to the ICU.

26 students were detained and taken to various stations in Aligarh. Three of them have testified that they were stripped and beaten with leather belts and another was beaten with rifle butts.

Others reported mental torture and religious humiliation like being forced to drink alcohol and chant religious slogans. Almost all accounts of custodial violence here entail the use of vile and Islamophobic language, as do many accounts of the police brutality on campus.

The Aligarh Police, on December 10, filed FIRs against 21 AMU students and 500 unnamed persons and on December 15, registered two FIRs against 56 people and 1200-1300 unnamed persons.

Several students expressed concern to the CAH about the implications of the criminal charges on their futures, careers, and reputations.

Many said their families were in shock.

Students like Sharjeel Usmani, Ravish Ali Khan, Farhan Zuberi, and Mohd. Amin Mintoee has been booked under Sections 147, 148, 149, 188, 307, 353, 504, 332, 336, 353, 332, 395 188, and 189 of the IPC, and other sections of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

The short term and long term psychological impacts of facing police brutality and custodial violence and the continuing criminalisation are highly concerning.

These acts of physical violence that are tangible in the report come with psychological implications. The rampant use of verbal abuse in the form of communal slurs, sexual violence against female protestors, blocking access to medical and legal aid, and other forms of infliction of pain are bound to leave their mark.

The investigation carried out by the National Human Rights Commission blamed the students for the violence and found the use of police force necessary.  It ignored the video footage of the incidents. Instead, it recommended compensation to some of the students on "humanitarian grounds" and departmental action against some police officials.

The disproportionate use of force by the police in the form of lathi charges and the use of tear gas shells against the use of force against demonstrators violates several international conventions and laws.

The notes that the Supreme Court and High Court judgments demand reasonability in the use of force against protesting masses and illustrates the corresponding unreasonable actions of the state machinery at AMU and JMI.

(Niharika Ravi is a student at School of Law, NMIMS, Navi Mumbai, and an intern with The Leaflet. The views are personal.)