In an embarrassing development, the Delhi High Court on Monday asked Delhi Police if it really understood what sedition was.

During the hearing of the JNU students’ union leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, the bench of Justice Pratibha Rani asked, “Do you know what sedition is. Was there any CCTV footage of entire incident? If report is based on TV channel footage, is there any other evidence.”

The court further said, “If you had all the evidence and witnesses of the incident on 9 February, then why did you wait for the Zee News footage to go on air? Why did you not take action aat that moment?”

The HC said that presence at the spot was different from participation in anti-India slogans.

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The court said, “Everything was happening at JNU, SHO was stationed at the gate. There were police in plain clothes there. If you have all these people, why wait for Zee News video?

“Someone was raising slogans that you can’t even read here. Was police relaxing? Is it possible? Wasn’t police supposed to take cognisance then and there?”

This came after Delhi Police denied having any video evidence to corroborate charges of sedition against Kanhaiya.

It told the court, “In the video Kanhaiya Kumar cannot be seen shouting slogans. However, there are witnesses to his shouting slogans. We do have independent witnesses- JNU officials, Chief security officers and students of JNU.”

Delhi police said that an individual with iPhone 6 had recorded the slogans but Kanhaiya was not seen chanting slogans.

Kanhaiya’s lawyer, Kapil Sibal told the court that he the arrested student leader was only there to ‘break fight, he opposes anti national slogans &didn’t raise them.’

Delhi government too informed the HC that there was no evidence against Kanhaiya arguing that he should be granted a bail.

The court reserved its order for 2 March on the bail plea.

More to come