Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was taken into police custody to an undisclosed location for one day, late on Thursday night. Kumar has been lodged in judicial custody at Tihar jail till March 2. Reports said the Delhi Police are likely to question him alongside two other JNU students arrested on charges of sedition, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. Khalid and Bhattacharya were remanded in three-day police custody on Wednesday. The students were slapped with sedition charges after they allegedly shouted anti-national slogans at an event held in protest against the hanging of Parliament attacks-accused Afzal Guru on February 9.
The Times of India said Delhi Police might charge some faculty members for harbouring Khalid and Bhattacharya, who said they went to Ghaziabad and Jharkhand after Kumar’s arrest because they feared a backlash. They returned to the JNU campus last Sunday. However, police do not believe this and sources told The Times of India that the students have given contradictory information about the night in question, and other things. Three other students accused of chanting anti-national slogans at the event have not surrendered to police yet, and are still inside JNU.
Patiala House Court violence:
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre and Delhi Police on a plea seeking a Special Investigation Team inquiry into the incidents of assault at the Patiala House Court during two of Kanhaiya Kumar's hearings. The apex court also issued notices to three lawyers who admitted on tape, that they beat up Kumar at the court complex while he was in police custody.
The move came after police in the capital on Thursday told the Supreme Court that they did not resort to violence when lawyers attacked people at Patiala House Court last week because it may have “led to a stampede”. Police filed a report that said it was a “conscious decision” to use minimum violence in those instances because it would have endangered the lives of people in the area and would have affected the functioning of the entire court complex. Bharatiya Janata Party ministers, including Home Minister Rajnath Singh, supported the Delhi Police in the Lok Sabha on Thursday and said police have only been doing their jobs.
The capital’s police has also come under heavy criticism for not backing down and allegedly using doctored video footage in their case against Kumar. Police were also accused of inaction at Patiala House Court when violence broke out at Kumar’s hearings.
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