The Delhi Police on Monday filed a 1,200-page charge sheet in a court in connection with the sedition case against former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and others.
The 2016 case pertains to allegations that anti-national slogans were raised at an event organised by Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya in Jawaharlal Nehru University campus after the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru. The registration of the case and their subsequent arrest had triggered a huge controversy with the opposition slamming police for “working at the behest of the ruling BJP”.
Delhi Police brought a trunk full of the 1,200-page charge sheet in the 2016 case and filed it before the Patiala House court of the capital. Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Anand put up the charge sheet for consideration before a competent court on Tuesday.
“If the news is true that a charge sheet has been filed, I would like to thank police and ModiJi. The filing of charge sheet after 3 years, ahead of elections clearly shows it to be politically motivated. I trust the judiciary of my country,” Kumar said, according to ANI.
The charge sheet has 10 main accused — Kanhaiya, Khalid, Bhattacharya and seven Kashmiri students, Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Muneeb Hussain, Umar Gul, Rayeea Rasool, Bashir Bhat and Basharat.
Shehla Rashid and CPI leader D Raja’s daughter Aparajita Raja are among 36 others named in the case.
The charge sheet has been filed under IPC section 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), & 120B (criminal conspiracy).
The arrest of Kumar and others catapulted them to national fame and resulted in protests across the country.