Images hint at BJP-linked student body’s role in JNU attack

mangaloretoday.com/NDTV

New Delhi, Jan 06, 2020: In the flood of video and images emerging from Sunday night’s violence at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) by a masked mob that left at least 34 people injured, one visual trail appears to link the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the BJP-linked students union, to the attack.

In one image, a young man identified as Vikas Patel, a member of ABVP’s JNU executive committee, is seen with a group of around a dozen young men armed with lathis.

Patel himself holds a fibre-glass baton, similar to those issued to the Delhi Police.

Standing next to him in a blue and yellow sweatshirt is a student identified as Shiv Poojan Mandal, a BA first year student in JNU, said to be affiliated to the ABVP.

The photograph is said to be taken on Sunday afternoon, before the attack on JNU.

 

In another set of images, Mandal appears to be seen with a larger group of lathi-armed men, making their way through the campus.

 

Mandal also appears to be seen in a video shot at night time, when the armed group is seen exiting the JNU campus.

 

The same blue/yellow hoodie appears in this viral video, in which the mob seems to be leaving the JNU campus at night. 3/n pic.twitter.com/XzQs4kyaSk

— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) January 6, 2020