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The Delhi government may file criminal charges against some news channels for airing doctored videos in the JNU sedition row. The government is also seeking legal advice after a magisterial report on Wednesday. The report says that there is are no witnesses nor is there evidence to prove that Kanhaiya raised ‘anti-national’ slogans. It also says Shilpi Tiwari, a close aid of Smriti Irani, was the first to push one of the doctored videos on social media.
Major Findings of the Magisterial Report
The Quint has gathered some of the important pointers of the report from Delhi government sources. Here some of the (paraphrased) highlights:
Three of the seven videos examined were found to be edited. Out of three edited videos, two were especially doctored to put in words. One was pushed on social media by Shilpi Tiwari (Smriti Irani’s close aide).
According to the Delhi police FIR, the videos show that people raised ‘anti-national’ slogans under the leadership of Umar Khalid. The FIR does not state that Umar Khalid raised these slogans or that Kanhaiya raised ‘anti-India’ slogans. There are doubts in the minds of police personnel regarding who raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans.
Nothing adverse could be found against Kanhaiya Kumar. No witness or video is available to support the allegations against him.
Umar Khalid was visible in many videos. His support for Kashmir and Afzal Guru is known and he was the organiser of the event. He had organised many such programmes in past.
Footage by JNU security and news channels as well as eyewitness statements confirm that Khalid raised slogans like “Kashmir ki janta sangharsh karo, hum tumahare saath hai”. His role needs to be further investigated.
‘Anti-national’ slogans were indeed raised on the campus of JNU. The university administration has identified a few faces who were clearly heard raising ‘anti-India’ slogans. The wherabouts of these students should be checked and their role must be investigated further.
Anirban and Ashutosh were seen with Umar Khalid. The security staff of JNU claim to identify their voices in slogans possibly saying, “Afzal ki hatya nahi sahenge”.
Many outsiders of Kashmiri descent were seen in the vidoes shouting pro-Afzal and ‘anti-India’ slogans. Many have their faces covered.. They should be immediately identified for further investigation. Possibly two of these students are from JNU and the admin should be working to bring them to the book.
The Zee News team was called to the event by ABVP’s Sourabh Sharma at 5.20 pm. The register entry of JNU clearly reflects their presence. The media house was called by the magistrate to share the videos and further details. They never complied.
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