New video clip suggests Delhi police ‘fired’ at Jamia protest, cops say will probe

New Delhi: In a fresh video, it purportedly showed policemen wielding pistols while dealing with stone-pelting mob during Sunday’s Jamia clashes. The Delhi Police on Wednesday said that they would investigate the clip. The police, however, said that they did not fire any shots during the protests and no policemen were carrying any firearms while dealing with the protestors. The source of the latest video remains unclear, but the clip was shot in daylight.

The authenticity of the video could not be verified. On a YouTube account where the video was posted, the location was described as New Friends Colony, on the Mathura Road, reported NDTV.

By Wednesday evening, after a TV news channel ran the clip, the video was taken off by the user. The police said they are yet to ascertain the authenticity, the location and the time of the video.

The video purportedly showed a policeman hurriedly bringing out what appeared to be a pistol. Soon, there were two policemen out of three who appeared to be cocking their guns, reported Hindustan Times.

When a stone landed near a policeman, one of them appeared to be raising his arm holding the “gun” and pointing it towards the crowd. There was a sound of a gunshot at that very moment, but it wasn’t clear if it was ambient sound or the noise was added.

The clip was followed by another clip that showed a young man kneeling, purportedly hurt around the same spot, and another person screaming that he had been shot by the police. The protestor, Ajaz, a student at Jamia University, has been admitted to Delhi's Safdarjung hospital for a bullet injury. The ellphone clip of Ajaz too would be probed by the police.

Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police (south-east), said, “While we maintain that we did not use any guns, we will investigate the latest clip that has surfaced. Since Sunday, two other clips of the policemen firing have been confirmed as rumours by us,” said Biswal.

In response to a few claims of bullet injuries, senior police officers earlier said it was possible that the people were hit by shards of tear gas shells, which on certain occasions have proved fatal.

So far, Safdarjung Hospital has said that they have received one person with bullet injuries, who was supposedly among the protesters. The police, however, denied firing at him or anyone.

On Monday, the police had categorically denied using firearms. "We have not shot anyone and we do not have rubber bullets," Joint Commissioner of Police Devesh Srivastava had said.