Coming down on the Delhi Police for invoking sedition charges against Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students and Delhi University (DU) professor SAR Geelani SAR Geelani for organising events against the hanging of Afzal Guru, the Dal Khalsa said the police establishment had not shown any respect for the high court and the Supreme Court verdicts vis-a-vis applying sedition charges against political dissidence.
Party spokesman Kanwar Pal Singh and human rights activist Harpal Singh Cheema in a joint statement issued here on Sunday, said the Delhi Police acted on the “unconstitutional and unjust orders of the Union Home Ministry and unleashed crackdown on JNU students and booked Geelani under sedition laws for raising their voices against the hanging of Afzal Guru three years ago.
Referring to the verdicts of the apex court and high courts of other states as to what makes the offence under sedition; the Dal Khalsa leaders said the police and investigating agencies hardly took into consideration such judicial verdicts while invoking sedition provisions against political dissidence. They said there had been considerable rise in incidents of police excesses and intolerance.
They said the act of JNU students and seminar at Press Club of India (Delhi) was in no way seditious nor did it evoke violence thereafter. “However, the police going overboard and conniving with ABVP- the student’s wing of ruling BJP, had gone against the spirit of law and democracy by charging organisers of both the events under provisions of sedition,” they added.
{{/usCountry}}They said the act of JNU students and seminar at Press Club of India (Delhi) was in no way seditious nor did it evoke violence thereafter. “However, the police going overboard and conniving with ABVP- the student’s wing of ruling BJP, had gone against the spirit of law and democracy by charging organisers of both the events under provisions of sedition,” they added.
{{/usCountry}}Urging the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice, the radical Sikh leaders demanded intervention of the Chief Justice of India and sought cancellation of the FIRs against JNU students and Geelani. They sought release of JNU student’s union president Kanhaiya Kumar and demanded that the witch-hunting of the university students be stopped.