JNU case: Delhi Police charge Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and others with sedition

Delhi Police on Monday filed a 12-page charge sheet in connection with the 2016 JNU sedition case. According to reports, the charge sheet has been filed at Delhi's Patiala House Court and names former student union leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid for allegedly holding an anti-national event at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University in February 2016. The Court will consider the charge sheet on Tuesday. 

Eight others have also been named in the charge sheet. Anirban Bhattacharya, Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Muneeb Hussain, Umar Gul, Rayeea Rasool, Bashir Bhat are among others named in the case.

CPI leader D Raja's daughter Aparajita Raja has also been named in the charge sheet. D Raja called the move politically motivated stating that there is nothing to prove in the case and that they will fight the case in the Court. 

"After 3 years Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet and slapped sedition charges against some students that include the leader of All India Students Federation (AISF) Kanhaiya Kumar and some other students who belong to our student organisation," Raja told media. 

"Even at that time, we said that these are politically motivated charges and nobody can accuse AISF of any activity against the nation. There's nothing to prove, our students can't indulge in such activities and the government can't slap sedition charges on them. We'll fight the case in the Court," he added. 

Shehla Rashid, vice president of JNU students union 2015-16, has also been named in the charge sheet. 

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), news agency ANI reported. 

The JNU panel had in 2016 recommended rustication of Khalid and two other students and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Kumar, the then students' union president, in connection with the campus event against Afzal Guru's hanging during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

The five-member panel had also imposed a financial penalty on 13 other students for violation of disciplinary norms.

The students had then moved the Delhi High Court, which had directed the university to place the matter before an appellate authority to review the panel's decision.

In July 2018, the Delhi High Court described JNU's order against Kanhaiya Kumar as illegal, irrational and irregular. 

Setting aside the JNU's move to penalise Kanhaiya Kumar for breach of discipline, the court asked JNU to decide the matter after a proper hearing.

The Supreme Court earlier, while pointing to the rise in the number of sedition case being filed, stated that all authorities across the country would be bound by the Kedar Nath judgment which states that Section 124A (sedition) is only applicable where an alleged act of sedition involves violence or incitement to violence. 

(With inputs from agencies)