After nearly a month behind bars, sedition-accused Jawaharlal Nehru University students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were on Friday granted bail by a Delhi court, which asked the duo to remain in the capital. Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh in the Patiala House Court Complex ordered the release of the two students after noting that they have no prior criminal record, are unlikely to abscond and that the Delhi High Court had previously granted bail to fellow sedition-accused JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar.
"I deem it appropriate to release both the accused on interim bail for a period of six months subject to them furnishing a personal bond in the sum of Rs 25,000 with one surety of like amount," the court said. "It is further directed that the accused shall not leave Delhi without the permission of this court during the period of interim bail."
Khalid and Bhattacharya have been accused of organising an event on the JNU campus on February 9 where alleged anti-national slogans were raised. The incident seemed to have been caught on camera by journalists alerted by the Rashtriya 's youth wing, and was then used by news channels to whip up a jingoistic frenzy.
State overreaction
This led to calls for the students to be killed and a complete breakdown in law and order inside the Patiala House Court Complex, where violent lawyers ran riot and attacked journalists as well as Kumar. It later emerged that a number of the news videos were actually doctored and an acknowledgment from the Home Ministry that the Delhi Police may have overreacted.
Nevertheless, the anti-national debate went mainstream, fueled by news channels that continued to make straw men arguments about soldiers dying while students exercised their right to free speech on the JNU campus.
The Delhi High Court order granting Kumar bail ended up encapsulating this mood perfectly, referencing majoritarian rhetoric to explain what the JNU student had done wrong, while claiming he should nevertheless be treated leniently.
"Suffice it to note that such persons enjoy the freedom to raise such slogans in the comfort of University Campus but without realising that they are in this safe environment because our forces are there at the battle field situated at the highest altitude of the world.
...
The kind of slogans raised may have demoralizing effect on the family of those martyrs who returned home in coffin draped in tricolor."
— Delhi High Court
The High Court's grant of bail to Kumar also came with the statement that the slogans on JNU's campus were a kind of "infection" which needs to be controlled, and in some cases "amputation is the only treatment."
Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh's order granting bail to Khalid and Bhattacharya manages to do so without any references to soldiers in Siachen, infections or even Bollywood songs. The order instead focuses on the facts of the case and whether there is any reason to keep the students behind bars.
Parity in the case
The order points out that, though the public prosecutor attempted to argue that Khalid and Bhattacharya's case differed from Kanhaiya Kumar's, the police's actual status report filed before the High Court doesn't make any distinction between them.
"Even though it was submitted by the Ld Addl PP for the State that Kanhaiya Kumar was not involved in organizing the event...," the order. "It is apparent that the case set up by the police qua co-accused Kanhaiya Kumar was also of organising as well as participating in the said event."
As such, the court says there is no reason to treat Khalid and Bhattacharya any different from Kumar, who was after all granted bail by the High Court. Moreover, the order pointed out that the state has not raised questioned the credentials of the students or mentioned any questionable past conduct.
In particular, the court also mentions that section 124A relating top sedition, covers a huge spectrum of punishments, from imprisonment for life to just a simple fine.
Without any references to the morale of soldiers, the court concludes that "nothing has been brought on record which could indicate that [Khalid and Bhattacharya] are likely to abscond from the jurisdiction of the Court", and as a result, orders that they be released.
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