Clashes between members of the RSS-affiliated ABVP and the Left-backed AISA early Monday triggered fear among students in the campus, even as security was tightened to prevent any further untoward incident.
A PhD scholar, who did not wished to be identified, expressed apprehensions that clashes could break out again late night and feared for her security.
"Even girls were attacked by ABVP activists in hostels, the assailants had come armed with hockey sticks and metallic chains. The whole academic atmosphere of the campus has been vitiated," she alleged.
Tension prevailed in the campus early hours as the two groups clashed accusing each other of attacking their supporters, hours after the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) poll results were announced.
In the afternoon, the situation came a bit under control, but a sense of fear and unease among students was palpable.
Mediapersons' entry was banned by the authorities late afternoon, security guards said.
A posse of police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were deployed at the main gate of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus.
Newly-elected JNUSU president N. Sai Balaji alleged that he was beaten up in the early hours by ABVP activists.
"Today, ABVP students randomly attacked students. I was called to the scene at Sutlej (hostel). As the elected JNUSU president, I went to ensure the safety of a student, who was attacked by ABVP students with sticks.”
"On reaching, what I saw was a mayhem. The mob, led by ABVP members, was baying for blood of any student they thought was a friend of the student who they were attacking," Balaji said.
He claimed that ABVP members "openly threatened him, along with former JNUSU president Geeta Kumari and other students present there, of dire consequences if they intervened to stop the violence".
"The group turned into a mob and started attacking a former JNU student in the Jhelum hostel and chased him, and almost lynched him in the lawns. I ran with other students to save him, who had fallen unconscious after the beating, and took him to an ambulance," Balaji said.
This is the second incident of the two groups clashing on campus, the last being on Saturday ahead of the counting, which was suspended after election authorities cited "forcible entry" and "attempts to snatch away ballot boxes".
The PhD scholar speaking anonymously, said, she was earlier a "member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), but left the group last year after she felt that it had lost its moral campus".
