Had to escape from JNU campus: Visually impaired student

New Delhi: Shashi Bhushan Samar, a visually challenged student and the face of fee hike protest, on Monday, said that he escaped the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Sunday evening during the violence after jumping off the hostel room from the second floor with the help of other students as the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students were having the list of Left wing students.

Speaking to IANS, Samar, who grabbed the limelight during the fee-hike protest, said: “I was in the admin block when two of my friends told me to run from here as the ABVP guys were beating the Left wing students.”

He said that he asked his friends to run from there as they would have been beaten by them because of him.

“But both of my friends told me that they would run with me. And then we reached the Sabarmati hostel. But there also the ABVP students barged into the hostel and started beating the students based on the list they had with them,” he said.

“Following the attack on other students, my friends told me that we have to jump from the balcony to save ourselves and then I climbed from the balcony with them,” he said.

Samar further said that he took refuge at the residence of friends in nearby Munirka till morning and then returned to the varsity campus in the afternoon on Monday.

Samar also alleged that the Delhi Police remained mute spectators when the ABVP students were beating the Left wing students and they also had the sticks which were provided to the police.

His remarks came a day after violence swept the JNU as several masked individuals, both male and female, thrashed students, including girls, and teachers inside the varsity campus with wooden and metal rods.

Two officer-bearers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU), including President Aishe Ghosh — who was reportedly hit over the eye with an iron rod, received severe injuries. They accused RSS’ student wing ABVP for the rampant violence in the campus.

Hostel rooms, and lobbies were vandalised during the assault while several vehicles standing on roads were damaged by the unidentified miscreants.

The situation turned violent after masked goons attacked a peace march being carried out by teachers and students against the violence in campus.

Earlier, the ABVP had accused Left inclined students of vandalising the Periyar hostel and severely injuring various students present inside the hostel.

Following the violence at the varsity campus Delhi Police registered an FIR on the basis of the PCR calls it received from the students on Sunday evening for rioting and arson.