New Delhi:The Jamia Millia Islamia Alumni Association on Tuesday filed a police complaint against policemen who barged inside the university’s library on December 15 last year, demanding that they be charged for offences like attempt to murder and insulting religion.

In its complaint filed with the deputy commissioner of police (Southeast) and the SHO of Jamia Nagar police station, the association alleged that the policemen rained batons on students inside the library and used religious slurs.

“In order to hide and destroy evidences of their barbarity and unlawful conduct, the officials/personnel of the police force deliberately tried to destroy the CCTV cameras installed in the campus premises, including the ones installed in the Old Library,” the complaint said.

It also stated that the “personnel of the police force vandalised the premises of the Old Reading Hall of the library and broke the gate which was locked from inside by the students and started abusing the students…and lathi charging them from head to toe”.

According to the complaint, the students who were present inside the library ran to other floors of the building and tried to lock rooms (MPhil and PhD sections) by putting benches and chairs at the entrance “in order to protect themselves from indiscriminate and unlawful brutality and violence unleashed by the personnel of Delhi Police”.

The association demanded that the policemen be charged with criminal trespass with the intent to cause grievous hurt, criminal intimidation, attempt to murder, deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion.

It also said the videos that have emerged online over the last couple of days are proof of police action on campus.

Three videos of alleged police brutality in Jamia surfaced online on Sunday. While one video purportedly showed paramilitary and police personnel thrashing students in the library, the other two showed some youths with covered faces entering the library.

A fourth video surfaced on Monday.

In the video, the police personnel can be seen raining batons on students who are trying to escape. Women students can be seen moving out while pleading with the police personnel and one of the policemen can be seen breaking a camera.

The police have maintained that they are trying to establish the exact sequence of events by analysing all the clips circulating on social media.

On December 15 last year, a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act near Jamia turned violent, with demonstrators pelting stones at police and setting public buses and private vehicles on fire.

Police later entered the university, firing teargas shells and baton-charging students. They said they entered the campus as rioters had taken shelter there.

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday accused the government of hiding data, including that of “lowest” consumption levels in 40 years, and asked it to make it public in order to find solutions to problems plaguing the economy.

The opposition party took a jibe at the ‘Gujarat model’ development, accusing the BJP government in the state of trying to “hide poverty” by constructing a wall in Ahmedabad ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit there later this month.

“We live in times where: GDP is measured in tons, Citizen rights in volts, Nationalism in decibels, Poverty in height and length of the wall. This is BJP’s ‘New India’!,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.

Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said playing ‘hide and seek’ has become the favourite game of the BJP government as it is concealing data pertaining to GDP numbers, inflation, unemployment and “now lowest ever consumption”.

“We demand that the government should take true care of economy. Data should not be hidden, but made public so it can be discussed as India is capable of battling all odds,” he said.

“Favourite game of the BJP government is hide and seek. Hide farmer suicide statistics. Hide unemployment figures. Hide the truth of demonetisation. Hide real GDP figures. Hide poverty behind the ‘wall’. And now hide the lowest consumption in 40 years,” he said, adding the government has “launched a war” against all sections of society including women, students and farmers.

Vallabh claimed that 16 of 23 sectors in manufacturing are in poor condition, but the government continues to be in a denial mode.

“The problem is that your mental culture is not balanced and you are not accepting the data which is on the ground, the truth which is on the ground,” he said.

The prices of essential products, he said, will further increase as growth projections are coming down and inflation is going up. If topline and bottomline go down, the revenue targets of government will have a big deficit (Even RBI Contingency Reserves can’t fill the same) this will also lead to reduction in social sector schemes, he said.

The Congress leader said the National Statistical Commission (NSC) official survey report showing a dip in consumer spending for the first time in over four decades will not be made public and the government had decided against releasing the report.

The drop in consumer spending for the first time in last 40 years clearly implies that poverty has gone up for the first time in many decades, he said, adding that in contrast to this, 27.1 crore people moved out of poverty between 2005 and 2016.

“This is the first time that the government has officially decided to not release a survey report after its completion,” he said.

“Those talking about the Gujarat model are now building walls to hide the poverty there. If a disease is to be treated, you have to accept that it is there in the first place. But BJP does not accept its failures,” he said while taking a dig at the BJP government over reports of construction of a wall in Ahmedabad to allegedly hide a slum.

Vallabh said only the government can answer on why the wall is being constructed, but as a citizen of a proud nation and as a worker of Congress Party he is disappointed as people of Gujarat are known for their entrepreneurship, their courage and “you are trying to demolish their entrepreneurship spirit. You are not sending a right message by putting up the wall”.

This, he said, is not the right way of addressing the problem. “If you have a problem, accept it that this is the problem. If you are not going to accept the problem, you can’t give a proper treatment to that problem and again that problem is always going to exist that you are not going to accept the problem…This is not the right way of going forward in life of the country.”

The Congress leader said the country has had the lowest growth in last nine years and this will definitely reduce savings as well, because inflation is 7.95 per cent.

“BJP’s favourite rating agency Moody’s has projected India’s growth estimate for 2020 to be 5.4 per cent, against the government’s claim of showing 6 to 6.5 per cent growth in the year,” he said.

Vallabh said poverty increases when consumption is low and claimed that UNDP data for 2005-2015 shows that during this period the highest eradication of poverty (271 million people) has taken place in the country and the credit for this goes to MNREGA.

The trust was formed in adherence to the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute in November last year.

NEW DELHI: The first meeting of the Ram Mandir Trust to oversee construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya will be held here on Wednesday at the Delhi residence of K Parasaran, the head of the Trust.

The Trust has been constituted by the Narendra Modi government.

The trust meeting is likely to finalise the date to start construction of the Ram Temple.

Modi had announced the formation of the 15-member trust in Parliament on February 5.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust has seven members, five nominated members and three trustees.

The trust was formed in adherence to the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute in November last year.

Senior lawyer Parasaran has been named the head of the Trust and its other members include Jagadguru Shankaracharya, Jyothish Peethadheeshwar Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati Ji Maharaj from Allahabad, Jagadguru Madhvacharya Swami Vishwa Prasannatheerth Ji Maharaj, Pejawar Math in Udupi, Yugpurush Parmanand Ji Maharaj from Haridwar, Swami Govind Dev Giri Ji Maharaj from Pune and Bimlendra Mohan Pratap Mishra from Ayodhya.

Shah will launch the Arunachal Pradesh Industrial and Investment Policy, 2020 and inaugurate the Joram Koloriang Road being constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), an official said. 

NEW DELHI:  Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday to attend the 34th Statehood Day function at Itanagar on February 20 and launch projects related to industry and roads, government officials said on Tuesday. This will be the home minister’s first visit to a Northeastern state following the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act which has led to countrywide protests.  
Shah will also lay the foundation stone of the new headquarters of the Arunachal Pradesh Police, home ministry officials said. 

Shah will launch the Arunachal Pradesh Industrial and Investment Policy, 2020 and inaugurate the Joram Koloriang Road being constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), an official said. Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, is also expected to attend the Statehood Day function.   Arunachal Pradesh became a full-fledged state on February 20, 1987. Till 1972, it was known as the North East Frontier Agency.  It gained the Union Territory status on January 20, 1972 and was renamed as Arunachal Pradesh. Shah had cancelled his visit to Meghalaya and Arunachal on December 15 in the wake of the violent anti-CAA protests in N-E.