JNU Chargesheet Filed in ‘Hasty, Secretive Manner’: Delhi Govt

However, according to the Delhi Police, the chargesheet did not require the sanction from the government.

Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar.

(Photo: The Quint)

The Delhi government on Friday, 5 April told a court that the police filed the chargesheet in the 2016 JNU sedition case in a "hasty" and "secretive manner" and that it will take over a month to decide whether to grant sanction to prosecute former JNU student's union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the case, PTI reported.

The AAP government made the submission to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat, accusing the police of filing the chargesheet secretly and in a hasty manner, without obtaining the required sanction from the competent authority.

However, according to the DCP of Special Cell of Delhi Police, Pramod Kushwaha, a request had already been sent to the government for the sanction, adding that it was an administrative action and that the chargesheet could proceed without it, according to the PTI report.

On Wednesday, the court had directed the Delhi government to inform it by when it would decide on the issue of granting sanction to prosecute the accused in the case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sehrawat had observed that the “sanction to prosecute must be decided within a time span, which is fairly necessary to do whatever is required to be done to ensure that trial may not be held back for too long”, The Indian Express reported.

On 14 January, police had filed a chargesheet in the court against Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised in the JNU campus during an event on 9 February 2016.

(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express.)