The 17-year-old who opened fire at protesters near Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University on Thursday (January 30) has been charged with attempted murder and will be presented before the Juvenile Justice Board on Friday (January 31) by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch.
Reports quoting police said class 11 student had planned the attack and had bought a crude pistol for the purpose a few days back.
A resident of Jewar in Uttar Pradesh, he had left home on Thursday morning on the pretext of going to school and instead took a bus to Delhi.
He later joined the crowd of the student protesters at Jamia. An NDTV report says, at around 1.40 pm he pulled out his gun and started shooting at the protesters saying, “Yeh lo Azaadi” (here, take your freedom), injuring a protester –Shadam Farooq, a first year mass communication student – in the process.
Although he was eventually captured by police, forces deployed at the protest site have been blamed for being lax in their response.
The attacker had earlier gone live on Facebook, and had identified himself as a right-wing activist.
The incident has drawn huge criticism for the BJP, especially in the backdrop of a few of its leaders making inciting comments against anti-CAA protesters at rallies for the Delhi poll Assembly.
Slamming the BJP over the Jamia firing incident, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said such incidents were possible with the ruling party’s leaders inciting people to shoot, and asked Prime minister Narendra Modi to answer whether he stands with violence or non-violence.
Students of the university launched an agitation outside the Delhi Police Headquarters at ITO in protest against the incident. They were, however, detained and removed from the area on Friday.
(With inputs from agencies)