A scuffle broke out between members of the ABVP and other student groups at JNU on Sunday night, causing no major injuries but stoking memories of last year’s violence that had left students’ union president and SFI leader Aishe Ghosh and others severely injured.

Sunday’s campus fight took place over the use of the students’ union office. The Hundred Flowers Group (HFG) — a Far Left society on the campus – regularly holds a Marxist study circle at the Students Activity Centre in the union office.

When members of the group arrived to read and discuss Engels’s essay, “Socialism: Utopian and Scientific”, at the office on Sunday night, they found that ABVP members had gathered there for their own meeting.

An argument led to fisticuffs, in which students from other groups joined in.

An FIR has been registered at Vasant Kunj (North) police station on a complaint from ABVP member Abhishek Kumar which accuses Ghosh and others of assault. The FIR makes no mention of a complaint lodged by a student from a Left group which the police acknowledged receiving.

The police have not named any accused in the FIR, registered under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention). The offences are cumulatively punishable by up to 13 months in jail.

Both the Left-led students’ union (JNUSU) and the ABVP held protest marches on Monday.

The HFG said: “This incident of hooliganism by ABVP goons is not a one-off incident…. The JNUSU office that ABVP was laying its claim (to) was recently vandalised by these same goons and the portraits of Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara were desecrated.”

It said the “horror of 5th January incident is still fresh”.

On January 5 last year, Ghosh was leading a campus agitation against a hike in hostel fees when she was assaulted with steel rods by alleged ABVP cadres who wore masks. She needed 16 stitches on her forehead.

No one was arrested. The police accused Ghosh of leading a mob but are yet to chargesheet her.

In a purported sting, India Today TV recorded Akshat Awasthi, a fresher BA student of French who had previously been seen at ABVP protests, claiming he was part of an effort to mobilise around 20 JNU students and an equal number from outside to attack Left supporters.

The ABVP said in a statement after midnight: “JNUSU and Left parties in their trance of the dictatorial powers of communism in USSR have brought out the decree that only JNUSU president can give permissions for using the Student Activities Centre. And to impose this they resorted to collective violence on ABVP activists having a peaceful gathering in the Teflas.”

Teflas is the building in which the Students Activity Centre is located.

In a statement on Monday, the students’ union said: “…The union office room remains booked on 14th nov for a reading session and the organisation has also campaigned for the same. ABVP not only refused to vacate the union office but unabashedly resorted to intimidating tactics…. Aishe Ghosh was heckled as she tried to intervene….”

The statement accused ABVP members of using chairs and rods in the fight --- purported videos of which were shared --- and named them.

DCP (Southwest) Gaurav Sharma told reporters: “Police swiftly responded to the call. However, no quarrel was found taking place on the spot…. Both the sides are levelling allegations against each other…. Enquiry is on and legal action will be taken accordingly.”

Chief proctor Rajnish Mishra issued a statement condemning “violence and unruly behaviour” of any kind on the campus.