Five questions to Delhi and Aligarh Police remain unanswered

Even as Delhi Police continues to deny firing bullets on protestors in Jamia, there is no clarity on how three of the protestors sustained bullet wounds and are being treated in hospitals. After claiming throughout Monday that no bullet was fired on Sunday evening, Delhi Police admitted in the evening that rubber bullets were indeed fired.

But who then fired regular, live bullets on protestors? Even as the controversy rages, Delhi and Aligarh Police find themselves in the eye of a storm. Beyond the bullet controversy, they are being asked to reply to these five questions:

1. Police spokesmen said on Monday that police does not require anyone’s permission to maintain law and order and can enter the campus anywhere. Which law prevents the police from entering the campus, they asked mockingly, questioning the settled convention.

2. Even when police entered the campus, why did they have to enter libraries, hostels, smash furniture and window panes, fire tear gas shells and beat up students, guards and library staff?

3. If the police were so vigilant, why did they fail to prevent buses from being torched by miscreants?

4. Were the police accompanied by men in plain clothes? Images of a man in a red T-shirt and jeans have emerged from Jamia, raising disturbing questions whether policemen in plain clothes, and in masks, are used to create disturbances. Questions such as this one swirled on social media on Monday:

Dear @DelhiPolice, can you please confirm that this guy in jeans and a couple of them at the back (as seen in this pic) are from Delhi police? If yes, why aren't they in the uniform? If not then who are they and why are they there? Have they been identified and arrested? Thanks!

5. Videos have emerged from Aligarh which show policemen vandalizing stationary and parked motorcycles, smashing headlights and taillights with not a single protestor in sight. Was this done to discredit the protestors?