Exposed: Masked woman in JNU violence is 'ABVP member Komal Sharma', claims India Today

| Published: Sunday, January 12, 2020, 14:51 [IST]

New Delhi, January 12: A week after violence erupted in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, India Today TV's special investigation team in yet another sting operation video unmasked the female arsonist wearing blue check shirt with a mask spotted using a rod in the videos from the campus.

Exposed: Masked woman in JNU violence is ABVP member Komal Sharma, claims India Today

According to India Today reports, the woman is said to be Komal Sharma from Daulat Ram College of Delhi University, who is a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

ABVP distances itself after two alleged party members confess how JNU violence was organised ABVP distances itself after two alleged party members confess how JNU violence was organised

In an Instagram post by one of her senior Anuja Thakur, she wrote that the woman is Komal Sharma, her junior in college as well as her school.

She also shared audio recordings on Instagram of her conversation with Komal, in which the latter accepted that it was she who had featured in the video of violence emanating from the campus on Sunday.

"Please do not tell anyone as my photos are going viral...please don't tell anyone that you had seen me," she is heard as saying in the audio tape.

View this post on Instagram

Komal Sharma Student Activist from ABVP was my junior in college as well as in school. Last night I messaged her just to confirm the fact if she was there at JNU campus or not but I asked her indirectly starting from that 'I saw you today at Munirka' and 'if she was wearing red white checkered shirt' and her admission to all my questions (which were my urges to confirm her presence there at the campus) with the following audio in which she says 'Didi, please kisiko matt batana' is the legal evidence that she is the same person as in the pictures that were leaked yesterday confirming the fact that she was the girl with the iron stick in the "unidentified mobs". I screen recorded her audio and chat as her Instagram account is no longer found. Share this as much as you can. #goonsofabvp @reallyswara @umar_khalid87 @youthkiawaaz @kanhaiyakumar @ravishndtv @peeinghuman @unbhakt @akashbanerjee.in @mallikadua @anuragkashyap10 @vidushak

A post shared by Anuja Thakur (@anujathakur30) on Jan 6, 2020 at 2:38am PST

The channel also reached out to the woman who revealed her identity and confirmed that the woman spotted with a mask in the video emerging from Sabarmati hostel inside the JNU campus on January 5 is Komal. "She was in my college - Daulat Ram - and she was associated with ABVP. She was my junior even in school," the woman claimed.

In the screengrab shared by her, Komal's Instagram identity is found to be named as '26_saravashisth'.

Upon investigation by the news channel, it was found that Sara Vashisth is the pseudonym used by Komal for her Facebook and Twitter accounts as well.

A day earlier, India Today had also aired a sting operation in which a first-year JNU student, identified as ABVP activist Akash Awasthi, admitted to his role in the violence on January 5. Awasthi not only confessed that he was among the iron rod-wielding miscreants, but also claimed that Komal was among them.

About 25-30 students were injured in the violence on Sunday evening. Violence erupted on the campus after several masked individuals, both male and female, thrashed students, including girls, and teachers with wooden and metal rods.