NEW DELHI: Delhi government has given permission to prosecute former

Students’ Union (JNUSU) president

and nine others in a

for allegedly raising anti-India slogans during an event in the university campus in February, 2016. After the government’s go-ahead, Kumar may face trial in the case along with the others.

“…On the consideration of the allegations made in the case and other material and evidence placed on record, it appears to the government of NCT of Delhi that the accused, namely Kanhaiya Kumar, Syed

, Anirban Bhattacharya, Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain Gattoo, Muneeb Hussain Gatto, Umair Gul, Rayees Rasool, Basharat Ali and Khalid Bhasir Bhat have prima facie committed an offence punishable under section 124A & 120B IPC 1860,” an order dated February 27 of the home department of Delhi government stated.

“This is purely a procedural matter. We believe that the judiciary and the judiciary alone should decide on the merits of each case,” said AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha.

The Delhi Police had filed a chargesheet in the case on January 14, 2019, Three years after the alleged incident.

The Code of Criminal Procedure lays down that for offences against the state (like waging war against the government, sedition, etc), the court cannot take cognisance of the police chargesheet without the sanction of the home department of the state concerned.

Kumar and the others have been charged under sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 465 (punishment for forgery), among other sections, for raising seditious slogans on the campus without taking approval of the Delhi government.

The Delhi Police was awaiting the prosecution sanction from Delhi government since January, 2019. Senior police officers had maintained that the 1,200-page chargesheet was sent to the AAP government on January 14 itself, hours before it was filed before a court. According to sources in Delhi government, the prosecution sanction file was sent from the office of deputy secretary (home) to the office of principal secretary (home) on January 14 and it was sent to the office of home minister Satyendra Jain on Monday (January 21) morning.

Delhi government had on multiple occasions questioned the urgency of the police in filing an “incomplete chargesheet without obtaining the prior sanction of the competent authority”. The home department had earlier pointed out that the investigating agency (police) had sought its approval only after filing the chargesheet in the court.

The issue of prosecution sanction snowballed into a political issue with BJP accusing the AAP government of supporting the “tukde-tukde” gang. Several BJP politicians, including home minister Amit Shah, have questioned the “delay” in the prosecution sanction and accused the AAP of “supporting” the accused.

The decision to grant sanction was taken after obtaining the opinions of the law department. Chadha stated that the law department of Delhi government, after conducting due diligence, given its opinion on this matter to the home department. “The Delhi government, as a matter of policy and as a matter of principle, does not and has not intervened in any of such cases. Our government has not stopped prosecution in any case, whatsoever, in the last five years,” Chadha stated.

He also maintained that the government had, in fact, granted its sanction a few days earlier, on February 20. “Our government has not stopped prosecution in any case, including those pertaining to our own MLAs and party leaders. Our MLAs fought these in the courts. In most cases, our MLAs were declared innocent while some cases are still pending in court. Even when it came to elected representatives of the ruling AAP, the government did not intervene in the process of law. It is only fair for the permanent executive as well as political executive to not intervene in the process of law and let the Judiciary perform its independent function,” Chadha said.

On January 19, 2019, which was the first hearing after the chargesheet was filed in the case, a court had refused to take cognisance owing to the elhi police not taking the requisite sanction for prosecution for the charge of sedition.

On the next hearing on February 6, the court had pulled up the Delhi Police for wasting its “precious time” with grant of sanction “hanging fire”. It said, “After filing of the chargesheet, no department can sit on its hands with the file with regard to the sanction." Thereafter, multiple hearings only saw the Delhi police reiterating that request seeking sanction was pending with the Delhi government.

On the last occasion, February 19, 2020, a court asked the public prosecutor to file a status report on the issue of sanction besides directing the police to send a reminder to the Delhi government seeking sanction to prosecute the chargesheeted persons.