A woman journalist working with the BBC, Bushra Shaikh, said that policemen rained batons on her and snatched her cellphone despite her showing them the press ID card.

“They (police) pulled my hair and roughed me up. When I demanded my phone back, they hurled expletives at me,” she said.

Jamia Vice Chancellor Najma Akhtar said that it was absolutely wrong to say that the miscreants who torched the vehicles were Jamia students.

“It is not possible for anyone to say who are those people in the crowd. My appeal to the media is that please don’t associate Jamia with these protests. We don’t know who these people on the road are who are,” Akhtar said while speaking with NDTV.

University Proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan said that the police entered the campus without permission and beat up students and the varsity staff, including the girls.

The police have detained over two dozens students and they were not being allowed to meet their lawyers.

Soon after the news of arson and vandalism came, a Jamia students' body claimed that they had nothing to do with the violence and arson and alleged that "certain elements" had joined in and disrupted the demonstration. The Jamia teachers association too condemned the violence.

However, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) Chinmoy Biswal said stones were pelted from inside the university campus at police personnel, forcing them to use teargas to disperse the "violent mob".

Delhi police spokesman DCP Mandeep Singh Randhawa said that the police used force only after the protesters tried to move beyond the area for which permission was given and protesters turned violent. They also pelted stones at the police and torched several vehicles near Sarai Julena and New Friends Colony, he said.

Aligarh Muslim University erupts

As the news of brutal police crackdown spread, tension gripped the AMU in Aligarh where students gathered to protest against the police action and the CAA. They clashed with the police following which police resorted to lathicharged and firing tear gas shells. The police entered the AMU campus and some of the policemen vandalised the students’ two-wheelers parked in the campus.

AMU Registrar Abdul Hamid announced the immediate closure of the university till January 5.