New Delhi : A video of police thrashing a group of students with sticks and fists and dragging women by their hair outside RSS headquarters here during a protest over Dalit student Rohith Vemula’s suicide on Monday triggered widespread outrage with Congress and AAP seeking action against the erring cops.
Delhi Police came under sharp attack from political parties and student groups as the video of Saturday’s incident went viral on social media but RSS appeared to defend the security personnel, saying they must have done whatever they found was appropriate.
In the 30-second clip, apart from police, some men in civilian clothes are also seen beating up the protesters near RSS office in Jhandewalan in Central Delhi. The students who staged the protest and AAP alleged that the men were RSS workers. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged the police force was being used as RSS and BJP’s “private army” under a political dispensation that is at “war” with students across the country.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi targeted the Modi government over the “shocking attack” on students and insisted the demonstrators were “brutally” beaten as they were “protesting against the RSS”. A Delhi School of Social Work (DSW) student, who was at the receiving end of a police assault, alleged police took turns in “brutally” thrashing him and did not even let him sip water.
