The Delhi Police have arrested Purvanchal Sena president Adarsh Sharma, who offered Rs 11 lakh to anyone who killed sedition-accused Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar. He has been charged with defacement of public property, abetment of offence punishable with imprisonment, public mischief, criminal intimidation and forgery, Hindustan Times reported.

Earlier, police had reported that he had just Rs 150 in his bank account. An investigating officer said that Sharma also owes rent for several months, and that he does not have a regular source of income. The police on Sunday had filed a case against him under the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act. The pamphlets with the bounty offer, signed by Sharma, were put up at the Press Club of India and other locations in Delhi.

Advertisement

Officials also said Sharma had disappeared after the case was filed. The Purvanchal Sena chief had switched off his phone and not contact anyone. The police sent a team to his hometown in Begusarai, Bihar, and raided possible hideouts. An officer said Sharma often borrowed money and bragged of having influential friends who were right-wing leaders.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 on charges of sedition, after he allegedly shouted anti-national slogans at an event organised at JNU to protest the hanging of Parliament attacks convict Afzal Guru. He was released last week on interim bail. While the police's investigation into the case continues, the university's registrar Bhupinder Zutshi told an investigative committee instituted by the vice-chancellor that Kumar had objected to the February 9 event being cancelled. The five-member committee is expected to submit its report by March 11, reported PTI. JNU students, including Kumar, have reportedly refused to be questioned by the committee, in protest against a preliminary inquiry team’s decision to suspend several students for the February 9 event.