A man tried to assault JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar on the campus on Thursday. He was escorted off campus by security. In a video accessible on NDTV.com, he can be seen claiming to be from Ghaziabad, and saying that he came to confront Kanhaiya over his anti-national statements.
“He has abused the nation, he has abused the army”, the man can be heard saying.
According to the NDTV report, Kanhaiya told reporters, “The man attacked me amidst all these people. But he was still escorted out of here (JNU) without any harm.”
According to students and teachers present there, the attacker called Kanhaiya for an interaction when he was attending the "nationalism" lecture at the varsity's administration block.
"Kanhaiya went to a corner to talk to him where the man started abusing him and, following an argument, slapped him. Seeing this, many students and university's security guards rushed to rescue him," a student said.
The varsity's security held the accused man, who identified himself as Vikas Chaudhary, a builder from Ghaziabad, detained him at the administration block and called police.
When police asked for a formal complaint to initiate legal action against the alleged offender, the students refused to do so as of now saying, they have submitted an undertaking to the university's security department that the students would not file a police complaint and that the varsity authorities were free to take a call on the issue.
University authorities, when contacted said, they have got to know about the attack from media reports and whether or not they will approach the police will be decided tomorrow.
Chaudhary told reporters, "Kanhaiya has abused the nation, he has abused our Army by raising allegations against our soldiers. He shouted anti-national slogans and also sided with anti-national people, that is why I attacked him".
This attack on Kanhaiya comes just days after posters appeared in Delhi offering a reward of Rs. 11 lakh for killing the JNUSU president. The man who put up those posters, who claimed to be the head of the “Purvanchal Sena” has been arrested.
Meanwhile, Kanhaiya was at the heart of another controversy that emerged on Thursday, in the form of a university document indicating that Kanhaiya was fined in 2015 for “misbehaving” with a girl student and “threatening” her. The altercation reportedly followed when the girl student asked Kanhaiya not to urinate in the open inside the campus.
Kanhaiya was reportedly held guilty by the university administration and fined Rs. 3,000. According to PTI, while an unsigned report was shared on social media by the girl, the university administration has confirmed the authenticity of the complaint and action taken.
The girl wrote on social media, “I am dejected and pained to see how my JNU community has ganged up to create false revolutionary. I want to ask, do you really understand the D for Dignity of a female, Mr Kanhaiya?”
Inputs PTI