Uproar over police assault: Those who were assaulted speak up

Reason for coming to the protest
“I am an active member of the Student Federation of India, and usually do go for protests. As a member of a student organisation, I went for this protest too,” she says.

What he saw
For a while, Sankha didn’t know what was happening. Having attended protests in the past, he had seen police lathicharge students. “We are used to the lathicharge, but I did not expect police would provoke violence and then use that as a reason to thrash us. I saw a girl being manhandled by police. When I stepped in to help, I was first lathicharged, then beaten up by cops and men in civilian clothes. They lathicharged us again. It all seem very orchestrated, like the police wanted us to react,”he says.

On the injuries he suffered, he said, “ I haven’t been able to lie on my bed and sleep. Else all is fine”.

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Watch video: Two Men In Civilian Clothes Who Assaulted Student Protesters Seen With Police Before Baton Charge

Chandrika, 30
Freelance journalist, former PhD student of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha

Reason for coming
“My work as a freelance writer has got me in involved in several issues; I was also an active participant in the Occupy UGC movement. I have been part of all the protests in Delhi ever since the news of Rohith’s suicide broke out, and even became a member of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) which is fighting for justice in his case. Saturday’s protest was next in line for the series of agitations we had planned.”

What he saw
“We have been witnessing such violence for the last two months, including from people in civilian clothes. The only thing different this time was that it was documented,” says Chandrika. “We had gone past the first barricade, taken a long round covering nearly 2 km and nobody did anything. But then suddenly, police started abusing and attacking women. Some of us intervened and then all hell broke loose,” he recalls.

Chandrika says he was pushed to the ground and attacked by 25-30 policemen and goons. “When they were attacking women, I snatched a policeman’s lathi, and they all threw me to the ground. I was repeatedly hit with lathis which had nails on them because of which I started bleeding from both my legs. Every time we try to be peaceful, the police forces us to become violent,” he says.

Chepal Sherpa, 25
PhD scholar in Centre for Political Studies, JNU

Reason for coming
“I have been part of the protests demanding justice for Rohith since the beginning. On Saturday, which happened to be Rohith’s birthday, we thought of marching to the RSS headquarters.”

What he saw
“This protest was no exception, but fortunately or unfortunately the violence was captured. The police and RSS were hand in glove. They waited till the end for the crowd to thin, before launching an assault on us,” says Sherpa. “That day there were no women constables. The men were manhandling women when we intervened. I was pushed to the ground, beaten and my hair was pulled,”
he adds.

Sagnik Banerjee, 24
MPhil in from Department of Political Science, DU

Reason for coming
“It’s the union ministers who repeatedly wrote to the Hyderabad Central University administration asking them to take action against Rohith and his friends, and they are guided by the RSS. Their office was the apt place to lodge our protest.”

What he saw
“After protesting for a while, we turned into a narrow lane where goons were already waiting for us. As soon as they saw women protesters, they started abusing them and used vulgar hindi expletives,” says Banerjee. He says he was attacked after he intervened. “We have been lathicharged at other places too but this beating definitely seems to have been ordered from the top. Even as they were beating me, I kept asking people in civilian clothes who they were but got no response,” he adds.

Shweta Raj, 27
1st year, Phd in Hindi Translation, JNU

Reason for coming
“As a student of a central university in the country, it is worrying for me to see what is happening with students belonging to different cases. Rohith’s case was particularly heart-rending,” she says.

What she saw
“You can’t just call it a lathicharge. There was an aggression, a brutality, a vindictiveness to the whole thing. They hit people with sticks, with boots, without regard for rules or regulations. If a common student would have seen the way the police behaved, unka police ke upas se bharosa uth jata. It makes one wonder… how can these be the people our security is entrusted with?”

Sukruta Alluri, 30
2nd year, Masters in Sociology from IGNOU

Reason for coming
“I got involved with the Ambedkar student inequality movement in Hyderabad. What is happening in our institutions, especially when it comes to rights of different student groups, is worrying. There is no student diversity left in our institutions. As a student, I’m really angry at what is happening, and had gone to the site to register my protest over how discrimination has become so institutionalised in the system,” she says.

What she saw
“I had gone to the kiss of love protest held outside RSS office last year, so I knew this was a volatile area and there was a possibility of lathicharge. That time too, goons had tried to intimidate students. But you can’t stop registering your protest because of that. This time, however, was different because it was almost made into a riot like situation. I saw a man in civilian clothes pick up heavy metal spare parts and throw them at the students,” she says.