Police action in JNU campus was backed by VC Jagadesh Kumar?

New Delhi: A day after Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar denied giving permission to Delhi Police to enter the campus on February 9, a letter, allegedly written by the varsity registrar, has now come to the fore suggesting his doublespeak on the issue.

As per media reports, the letter was allegedly written by the University Registrar to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, South District. The letter said, "VC grants to the police force permission to enter JNU campus if need be and as you may deem fit."

The letter, accessed by some leading media houses, proves the allegations that JNU V-C had actually granted permission to the city police to enter the campus on February 9 when student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested.

Meanwhile, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association today questioned Vice Chancellor over his permission to Delhi Police to carry out searches on the campus and arrest students and demanded withdrawal of the same.

"Your letter to the Delhi Police granting them unprecedented rights to conduct indiscriminate search and arrest of our wards is highly objectionable," JNUTA said in a letter to the Vice Chancellor.

"We urge you to kindly issue a letter clearly withdrawing this formal permission to the police and re-establish the credibility of our administration in the eyes of our community."

"Subversion of our own institutional mechanism for enquiries, based on the statutes of our university duly established by an Act of parliament, raises a number of questions about the legitimacy of the decision," the statement added.

Police raided the JNU campus on February 12 night and arrested JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar.

The controversy erupted after some JNU students organised a meet to mourn the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front co-founder Maqbool Bhat. Anti-India slogans were allegedly raised at the meeting.

The organisers, however, denied that the students raised any anti-national slogans.

The vice chancellor on Monday said police were not called in by the university.

"We did not call police. Police sent us a letter saying that an FIR had been lodged against some unnamed people on sedition charges and that they wanted our cooperation in investigating the incident. We only allowed them to enter as per the law to perform their duties," Jagadesh Kumar said.

With Agency inputs