Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has rejected Delhi Police’s request for sanction to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) President Kanhaiya Kumar and others who have been accused of raising anti-India slogans on JNU campus on February 9, 2016. As per reports, Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain is of the opinion that no case of sedition can be made against Kanhaiya on the basis of the evidence put up by Delhi Police.
Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain is of the view that the accused had ‘no intention’ of inciting violence and did not raise such slogans during the march. He further said that the sloganeering started between two groups to ‘mock each other’. That the slogans such as ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’ were ‘aimed at other group and not to the State and its sovereignty’ as per Jain.
The Delhi government found the evidence provided by Delhi Police ‘flimsy’ and ‘riddled with gaps’.
In January this year, the Delhi police special Cell had submitted 1200-page charge-sheet in the JNU sedition case. The JNU sedition case has seen no proceeding so far due to the Arvind Kejriwal government’s refusal to give nod for prosecution. Accused in the case are Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and several others.
In February this year, the Patiala House Court had asked Delhi police to speed up the proceedings by receiving Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government’s sanction for prosecution. It had also added that state government cannot delay the case by withholding nod for prosecution.
But it was revealed before the court that the Delhi government did not respond to the charge sheet after receiving it. According to Delhi police, first request to sanction prosecution was sent in 2016, and another request was sent in January this year, without any results.
In cases like JNU sedition row, Police has to solicit a sanction to prosecute from Delhi state’s law ministry. Then the file has to go to Lt. General. The court cannot take cognisance of charge sheet without state government’s nod. Now the Delhi Government has refused to sanction the prosecution.
In February 2016, the students of JNU had organized an event to mark the anniversary of terrorist Afzal Guru who had attacked the Indian Parliament. Many slogans challenging the Indian State’s sovereignty and calling for its balkanization were raised. At the event, slogans like ‘Bharat Tere Tukde Honge’ and Afzal hum sharminda hain, tere katil jinda hain’ were captured in news reports.
