September 21, 2025
Modified : September 21, 2025
Several Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) students allege that they were brutally assaulted by Delhi Police in a moving bus—slapped, beaten, and verbally abused—sustaining bruises and swelling that required medical treatment, despite not having participated in the protest march marking the 17th anniversary of the Batla House “encounter.”
The All India Students’ Association’s (AISA) march on Friday was met with a heavy-handed response, as students were dragged, manhandled, and detained by Delhi Police with the support of the administration.
Meanwhile, the administration has served a show cause notice to AISA secretary Sourabh Sourabh, alleging that he gave a “provoking political speech” on the “sentimental issue of a particular community” and tried to “ignite the sentiments of the youth on religious lines.”
Sourabh denied the allegations, calling them “baseless,” and challenged the administration, saying, “There is nothing like that in my speech… the administration did not tell me which part of my speech was provoking.”
The march, Insaf Mashaal Juloos, was held from the Central Canteen to Gate No. 7 of Jamia Millia Islamia to mark the 2008 Batla House “encounter,” one of India’s most controversial police operations carried out during Ramadan, when a Delhi Police Special Cell stormed an L-18 flat in Batla House, killing two Muslim youths, Atif Amin and Mohammad Sajid, after labelling them as Indian Mujahideen members.
NSUI JMI president Mohammed Athnan said he was present after the protest crackdown and was himself detained for questioning the detention of students who had not even participated in the demonstration.
According to him, JMI guards handed them over to the police, after which he, along with seven other students, including female students, was detained.
“We were taken in a bus, our phones were seized, we were slapped on the face, brutally beaten, and verbally abused,” he said, further alleging that a police official, SI Pradeep Malik, was leading the assault.
He claimed that they were not taken to any police station but instead driven around in the bus through areas like Sukhdev Vihar and Lajpat Nagar, along with other detained students, including his friends Ebin and Fasil.
He said that when their phones were briefly returned to show Aadhaar cards, he shared his live location with a friend. “Even my friends who came to help us were detained,” he said. The female students, he added, were released midway.
According to him, SI Pradeep Malik reportedly said, “I’m Pradeep Malik, remember me,” before releasing them.
The student leader said he later went to the hospital with ear pain, hearing issues, head swelling, and bruises, and now plans to file a complaint against the officers through the Police Commissioner.
Calling it “brutal violence,” Athnan said, “Such shameless police violence on innocent students cannot be tolerated.”
“NSUI has resolved to fight back and demand strict action against the culprit police officers,” he said.
Reacting to the incident, AISA’s Sourabh, who was also detained during the protest march, said it was “shocking,” noting that, “Usually police behave democratically during detentions, but here detainees’ phones were seized and students, including Athnan and others, were physically assaulted.”
“Not only protest participants but even common students, including those recording videos, were taken by the police,” he alleged. “This is a conspiracy led by the chief proctor and the security adviser, whom I call an ‘agent of the Sangh Parivar,’ and they always involve the Delhi Police.”
The Jamia Millia Islamia administration has served a show cause notice to Sourabh, alleging that through his organisation, AISA, he attempted to organise a gathering that may pose a “potential threat to the safety and security of students and disrupt the teaching, learning, and research environment of the campus.”
The notice further claims that he “gave a provoking political speech at the Central Canteen on a sentimental issue of a particular community and tried to ignite the sentiments of the youth on religious lines,” engaged in sloganeering objectionable slogans against the University Administration, put up professionally designed and printed large-size posters on public property inside the campus and in Jamia Nagar “with the intention of making the gathering more sensitive to attract a large crowd,” and distributed handbills of the proposed gathering.
“The above said repeated unlawful acts on your part constitute a breach of discipline as stipulated in Ordinance 14 (Academic) of Jamia Millia Islamia for unbecoming a student of this University,” read the show cause notice.
About The Author
Discover more from THE KASHMIR GRAPH
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.