JNU sedition case: Kanhaiya, Umar Khalid may appear in Delhi court today

On February 15, chief metropolitan magistrate Pankaj Sharma had summoned them while taking cognizance of the police charge sheet. The judge had also noted that the Delhi government had granted sanction to prosecute the accused for sedition

Former JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and eight others, booked under sedition and other charges for allegedly raising anti-India slogans during an event at the university campus on February 9, 2016, are likely to appear before a city court on Monday.

Kanhaiya Kumar. (File photo)

On February 15, chief metropolitan magistrate Pankaj Sharma had summoned them while taking cognizance of the police charge sheet. The judge had also noted that the Delhi government had granted sanction to prosecute the accused for sedition.

The other seven accused charge sheeted in the case are Kashmiri students Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Muneeb Hussain, Umar Gul, Rayeea Rassol, Bashir Bhat and Basharat. While all the others are out, Khalid is in judicial custody at Tihar jail for allegedly conspiring to orchestrate the north-east Delhi riots which had broken out in February, 2020.

The Delhi police’s special cell, on January 14, 2019, filed a 1,200-page charge sheet before the city court naming Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven others.

While the accused have denied the allegations, Kumar and Khalid have said the police action was “politically motivated”.

They have been charged under Sections 124A (sedition), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 149 (being a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

A case was registered on February 11, 2016, following complaints from then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Maheish Girri and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS.