Campus Insecurity

Jamia students detained and suspended as they allege administrative vindictiveness / Politics

- RISHAB GAUR AND RYAN THOMAS

Chaos unfolded at Jamia Millia Islamia early on the morning of 13 February, as the Delhi Police, accompanied by the university's security staff, illegally detained 14 students. The students had been protesting against the university administration's recent measures to restrict student political activity on campus. Upon being detained by the police, the students were split into smaller groups and taken to different police stations far from the Jamia campus—in Badarpur, Bawana and Fatehpur Beri. The university also suspended 17 of the protesting students, including many of those who were detained. Several students have accused the Jamia administration and Delhi Police of administrative overreach and suppression of dissent on campus. In a statement, the university stated that it had “taken preventive measures to ensure academic activities continue as normal.”

The entire detention process was illegal and violated multiple constitutional and procedural safeguards, according to Manik Gupta, an advocate who is now representing some of the detained students in court. Gupta told us that he was contacted by activists from various student organisations for assistance soon after the police action, after their friends and family were unable to reach the detained students. “Women students cannot be detained before sunrise; it is settled law,” he emphasised, adding that this provision was disregarded when female students were picked up from Jamia in the early morning hours. The students were eventually released, but only after hours of incommunicado detention, during which they were denied access to lawyers and family. “This is another violation,” Gupta said.