Court pulls up Delhi Police over chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar in JNU sedition case without sanction

india

Updated: Jan 19, 2019 20:56 IST

A Delhi court Saturday rapped the Delhi Police on the knuckles for filing a chargesheet against former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case without approval of the legal department.

“’You don’t have approval from legal department, why did you file chargesheet without approval?” the court said according to ANI. Delhi Police told the court that it will get approval in 10 days.

The court fixes the matter for February 6 and asked the Delhi Police to get required sanction approval by then.

On January 14, the Delhi Police charged Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others, including Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, with sedition three years after they allegedly raised “anti-India” slogans at an event at the university.

The police submitted a 1,200-page charge sheet in the Patiala House court over the JNU event that was held on February 9, 2016 to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Kumar said that the chargesheet was politically motivated given the filing of its timing. The chargesheet also drew fire from the Congress with Kapil Sibal accusing the government of using the sedition law to muzzle dissent in the country.