Delhi police special cell, investigating into February 2016 JNU event commemorating terrorist Afzal Guru, is now finally going to submit charge sheet at Patiala House Court on Monday. The charge sheet reportedly mentions the name of that time JNUSU president Kaniya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya.
The case had hit the national headlines in February 2016, when it was reported that some students of JNU had organized an event to mark the anniversary of a terrorist Afzal Guru who had attacked the Indian Parliament. Many slogans had also challenged Indian State’s sovereignty and called for its balkanization. At the event, slogans like ‘Bharat Tere Tukde Honge’ and Áfzal hum sharminda hai, tere katil jinda hai’ were captured in news reports. The videos capturing the slogans were alleged to be doctored. However, the raw footages of the event with Delhi Police came out as undoctored by Central Forensic Science Laboratory.
After the videos emerged, JNUSU leader Kanhiay Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were nabbed by Delhi police and produced before the court. The three were then released on bail. The arrest had led to the accusation that Delhi Police is working on orders from the BJP’s central government, and is stifling ‘voice of dissent’.
The charge sheet, in addition to these three names, also mention 7 Kashmiri students. Police, during the investigation, has found that the event was organized without proper formalities, and when President Kaniya Kumar was informed about it, he started an argument with security personnel. He also led a mob that shouted the slogans, according to the charge-sheet.
According to reports, police have framed charges against the activists under section 124A (sedition), section 147 (rioting), and section 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code. According to commissioner Amulya Patnaik, the case has taken three years to reach its conclusion because it was a complex case and the police also had to go to other states to take statements from several people. Kanhiaya Kumar and even many leftist media outlets have time and again challenged the government to come out with the charge sheet and prove the charges against students.
Along with these students, the name of other 32 also appears in the charge sheet, including the name of Former vice-president of Student Union Shela Rashid. But, according to police, they don’t have enough evidence to substantiate charges against them.
Names of students like Kanhiya Kumar, named in the charge sheet, catapulted into national politics and reaped great political benefits after Congress President Rahul Gandhi and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal along with communist leaders openly supported them and slammed the arrests. Kanhiya Kumar is also reportedly going to contest 2019 Lok Sabha elections, on a CPM ticket from Begusarai of Bihar. Recently, an FIR was lodged against him by the hospital administration of Patna’s AIIMS following an altercation with junior doctors. He was also accused of being involved in a violent clash with the organisers of a Durga Puja committee in Begusarai.
The other student Syed Umar Khalid, is the son of SIMI terrorist and had also openly supported terrorist Burha Wani, who was killed by security forces in Kashmir.
Police have asserted that charge sheet is backed by concrete evidence collected during the investigation. They also said that evidence is also backed by data collected from accused’s Facebook profiles.
The FIR filed by Delhi police in 2016 on the incident has been attached below:
