A team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) reached Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) campus on Tuesday and started recording the testimonies of the students who were victims of the alleged police brutality on unleashed on campus on December 15, last year. Probe will continue till January 17, sources said.

The NHRC had last month sent a fact-finding team to investigate whether there were any violations of human rights during the police crackdown at the varsity premises on December 15.

“After conducting an on-spot inquiry earlier, NHRC has decided to further probe the Jamia university incident. The rights panel team will conduct this investigation from January 14-17,” a source in the NHRC said.

On Tuesday, around 35-40 students were present to record their statements with a NHRC team, led by SSP Manzil Saini, to conduct an inquiry to know whether there were any violations of human rights during the incident, varsity officials said.

According to the NHRC, it had received complaints in December alleging illegal detention of students by police and denial of legal and medical access to injured students at the police station, following which it had registered a case and deputed a probe team.

The four-member team of the human rights body headed by a DSP visited the varsity and recorded the statements of students who were either injured or witnessed the alleged police brutality inside the varsity library on December 15, said university spokesperson Ahmad Azeem.

The team will visit the campus again on Wednesday and also on January 16 and 17 for recording statements of the remaining students, employees and security personnel of the university, he said.

After recording his testimony, Mustafa Mojib, a MA student, told news agency IANS, “After detaining us from the campus, they took us to gate No. 7 of the university near the metro pillar and started thrashing us. They were also hurling communal abuses, like ‘Kalma padh lo saalon’.”

Narrating his ordeal, Mojib said, “On December 15, I was in the library. Around 5.25 p.m, I could hear the sound of tear gas shells being fired inside the library. After that the police entered the library, began to beat everyone.”

“After we were detained, they told us that we were being taking to Holy Family hospital for first aid. But they took us to the New Friends Colony police station. We were not even given water to drink. We were not allowed to meet lawyers.”

Of the 40 students present, 25 gave their version of the incident in writing to the NHRC team.

(With agencies input)