According to ABVP statements, the immersion procession was disrupted near the Sabarmati T-Point around 7 pm, with participants alleging stone pelting, verbal abuse, and injuries to both male and female students. ABVP’s JNU president Mayank Panchal described the alleged attack as “a direct attack on the university’s festive tradition and the faith of the students.” ABVP’s JNU minister, Praveen Piyush, further condemned what he characterised as targeting of female students during a sacred ritual, and called for strict remedial action from the university administration.
Left-aligned student fronts—including the All India Students’ Association, the Students’ Federation of India, and the Democratic Students’ Federation —strongly denied any assault on the procession. These groups accused the ABVP of orchestrating a display of communal politics by projecting controversial figures such as Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam as Ravan in its effigy burning event. The Left groups described this as “a blatant display of Islamophobia” and demanded that the ABVP explain why it refrained from depicting figures like Nathuram Godse or Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh instead. They argued the narrative betrays an intent to polarise religious sentiment among students.
Video footage circulating from the campus captures students raising slogans, flinging footwear and engaging in scuffles. Security personnel were seen forming a human barrier, but the situation remained volatile for some time. Several participants and observers sustained minor injuries in the melee.
Despite repeated requests, the JNU administration has neither confirmed nor clarified the sequence of events. The university’s press relations office and chief security officer told reporters they had no record of the incident as yet.
Independent media reports indicate that alongside the immersion clash, the ABVP staged its Ravan Dahan ceremony on campus. The effigy reportedly bore visual references to Khalid, Imam and Parliament-attack convict Afzal Guru. In its justification, ABVP claimed this symbolic act intended to signal an end to “Naxalism, Leftism, Maoist violence and anti-national ideologies” on campus. Left organisations countered that this appropriation of religious ritual for political messaging undermines the secular ethos of student life and escalates the potential for ideological polarization within the university.