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The Delhi Police has submitted a 1,200-page-long charge sheet in the Patiala House Court on Monday, 14 January, against 10 people – including former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya – from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) who were accused of sedition. The matter is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand has put up the charge sheet for consideration before a competent court on Tuesday, reported PTI.
The charge sheet explicitly mentions that 10 students – including Khalid, Kanhaiya and Bhattacharya – have been accused of sedition. Seven out these 10 include students from JNU, Jamia Millia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University, a senior police official told.
The evidence submitted by the Delhi police includes 10 videos in a CD. The police in their investigation has interrogated 90 witnesses who were allegedly present in the varsity during the event.
Others named in the charge sheet include former JNUSU vice president and student leader Shehla Rashid and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja’s daughter Aparajitha Raja.
The charge sheet has been filed under sections 124A (sedition), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 465 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine, forged document), 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 149 (unlawful assembly with common object), 147 (rioting) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
‘Would Like to Thank Modi Ji’
Former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, speaking to ANI, said:
“If the news is true that a charge sheet has been filed, I would like to thank police and Modi ji. The filing of charge sheet after three years, ahead of elections clearly shows it to be politically motivated. I trust the judiciary of my country.”Kanhaiya Kumar to ANI
Kanhaiya, in his tweet, also thanked PM Modi for ensuring that a charge sheet against the students was filed after a long wait of three years, even as the prime minister has not fulfilled promises of jobs and ‘acche din’.
“Congratulations for Waking Up After 3 Years”
Reacting to charges of sedition against him, former JNU student Umar Khalid said, “The government once again wants to deflect attention from its failures by raking up this issue just before elections”.
“They need to bury their failures under these lies,” Khalid wrote in a Facebook post.
Shehla Rashid, the former JNUSU president of 2016, the year when the controversy erupted, also tweeted her response to the charge sheet, slamming what defines sedition.
Kashmiris Used for Scoring Political Points, Says Mehbooba
Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has said that using Kashmiris to score political points has become a norm.
“No surprises here. We are months away from the 2019 general election and like always, using Kashmiris to score extra political points with the Indian electorate has become somewhat of a pre-requisite,” Mehbooba tweeted on Monday.
Reiterating Kanhaiya’s claim that revoking the case three years later, right before elections suggests political motivation, CPI leader D Raja has said that the government’s move to slap a sedition case is politically motivated.
“Even at that time we said that these are politically motivated charges and nobody can accuse AISF for any activity against nation. There's nothing to prove, our students can't indulge in such activities and government cannot slap sedition charges on them. We'll fight the case in the court,” Raja said, reported ANI.
Former JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid, another accused in the charge sheet said, "This is a completely bogus case in which ultimately everyone will be acquitted. The timing of the charge sheet right before the elections just reflects how the BJP wants to reap electoral benefits out of this. I was not even on campus on the day of the event."
Almost three years ago on 11 February 2016, the Delhi Police had begun its investigation into the allegations levelled against these JNU students.
The sedition case, registered on the basis that “anti-national” slogans were raised at an event to mark the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, prompted a nationwide debate in 2016 with many criticising the police’s response as suppression of free speech and dissent.
Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya were believed to have been closely involved with the event, and were arrested soon after the incident. However, they were eventually given bail.
The others who have been named in the case – Aquip Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Umair Gul, Rayees Rasool, Bhashrat Ali and Khalid Bashir Bhat are reportedly residents of Kashmir.
The police had based its case on several videos of the event in the JNU campus that showed such sloganeering. However, a district magistrate’s probe found several videos of the incident to have been doctored.
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