A Delhi court on Monday, 15 February, summoned former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others to appear before it on 15 March, in connection with a controversial sedition case that was registered against the students in 2016.
The charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police claims that Kumar and others named in the case had chanted seditious slogans at JNU on 9 February 2016. The slogans were allegedly raised at an event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
The summons were issued nearly a year after the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government sanctioned the prosecution of Kumar and others in February 2020, after being accused by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of shielding anti-national elements.
The students named in the charge sheet include Kumar, Syed Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain Gattoo, Muneeb Hussain Gattoo, Umar Gul, Rayees Rasool, Basharat Ali and Khalid Bashir Bhatt.
What Have the Students Been Charged With?
According to The Indian Express, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Patiala House Courts Dr Pankaj Sharma took cognizance of the charge sheet saying that “the sanction to prosecute accused persons has already been filed by the Home Department, GNCT [Delhi government], dated February 27, 2020. After careful perusal of the charge sheet and consideration of the material, all the accused persons are summoned to face trial and they have been summoned through investigation officer for March 15, 2021.”
Kumar and the nine others have been charged with 124A (sedition) 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 465 (forgery), 471 (forging documents or electronic record), 143, 149 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 120B (Criminal conspiracy).
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
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