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Updated: Feb 29, 2020 09:00 IST

Left leader Kanhaiya Kumar has questioned the timing of the permission granted by the Delhi government on Friday to prosecute him in the JNU sedition case dating back to 2016. The former student union leader also demanded a speedy trial while responding to the development late Friday night.

Kanhaiya Kumar, who is now active in politics in his home state of Bihar tweeted to say it was “clear that the matter (sedition case) was created and delayed for political benefit.”

“It is clear that this matter was created & delayed for political benefit. I want a speedy trial in a fast-track court so that the entire country gets to know how a law like Sedition is being misused,” Kanhaiya’s tweet said.

Watch | Delhi govt gives nod for Kanhaiya Kumar’s prosecution in 2016 sedition case

The decision to prosecute Kanhaiya was taken by the prosecution wing of the home department of Arvind Kejriwal led Delhi government after it analysed the matter, a government official had claimed earlier in the day.

Kanhaiya was accused of raising alleged “anti-national” slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus on February 9, 2016, during a protest action against the death sentence handed out to Afzal Guru, a convict in the 2001 Parliament attack case.

A Delhi Police charge sheet filed on January 14, 2019, names 10 JNU students-- Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven Kashmiri students-- among the accused.

The trial in the sedition case involving Kanhaiya has been pending ever since for want of a sanction from the state government- a mandatory process. Kanhaiya says the timing of the nod, given months ahead of the Bihar assembly elections, was suspect.

“The charge-sheet was filed for the first time when I was about to contest the election and now elections are going to be held in Bihar again. There is NDA govt in Bihar, the state govt has passed a resolution in the assembly against NRC-NPR,” he said.