Jamia's plea seeking FIR against police dismissed

New Delhi: A court here on Wednesday dismissed an application filed by Jamia Millia Islamia University seeking an FIR against Delhi police officials for allegedly breaking into the campus without its permission and assaulting students and security guards during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in December 2019.

Metropolitan Magistrate Rajat Goyal held that the acts allegedly committed by the police officials fell within the purview of the acts committed in discharge of official duties, and a requisite sanction was a must from the authorities concerned to prosecute them. "Thus, as per law down by the Supreme Court, existence of requisite sanction is a must even before jurisdiction could be exercised. That being so, present application cannot be allowed for want of sanction," the court said.

The application had sought registration of an FIR claiming that on December 15, 2019 police officials committed various atrocities, including "vandalizing public/university property and unnecessary use of force against hapless students who were only exercising their democratic right to protest peacefully."