NEW DELHI: Delhi Police had been claiming to be looking for them all over the country. It even questioned journalists who were covering the JNU row if they knew the whereabouts of five students accused of raising anti-India slogans on February 9. But when the students, including Umar Khalid, finally resurfaced on the campus on Sunday night, the police chose to wait and watch instead of storming in and arresting them.Police sources said that some of the reluctance might stem from the fact that the cops have identified eight outsiders who first began shouting anti-India slogans. “While these five students were present at the meeting, it is not certain whether they actually shouted the slogans,” revealed a source.The students have said they won’t surrender and the police will have to come and get them. The police appear to be in no hurry and seem to be waiting for the hearing on Kanhaiya’s bail plea in Delhi high court on Tuesday. If the HC slams them, they could review their strategy since courts may take the same view in the other cases. So, throughout Monday, they stayed outside the gates. A team got in touch with the VC but there was no headway.Belying initial reports that the students had decided to surrender, the students’ union (JNUSU) and teachers’ association (JNUTA) first put the ball in the vice-chancellor’s court and then asked him not to allow the police to enter.JNUSU and JNUTA have demanded removal of the officiating registrar, blaming him for the police action and the debarring of eight students, including Kanhaiya Kumar, from academic activities. Three hundred teachers met the VC, M Jagadesh Kumar, at 3pm. Though Shehla Rashid, vice-president, JNUSU, said the VC had given them a verbal assurance that the police won’t be allowed to enter, there was no word from him.It was around 6pm on Sunday that three AISA members --Ashutosh Kumar and Ananth Prakash, both former JNUSU members, and Rama Naga, present general secretary, resurfaced at the nationalism lecture in front of the JNU administration block. But the final act unfolded at 9pm when former DSU (Democratic Students’ Union) members and organizers of the February 9 event, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, made their appearance at the venue.Even as media started flashing the news and JNU security went into a tizzy, closing the entry gates, the AISA members started speaking at the public meeting, accusing the government of conducting a witchhunt. They said they had gone into hiding as they feared lynching by a mob. Around 10.30pm, Khalid took the stage to speak and announced: “My name is Umar Khalid and I am not a terrorist.” He then spoke about how allegations had been made against him, painting him as the mastermind, how he was worried about his family, how his identity had been reduced to being just a Muslim, but the protesters were not going to be cowed down.The students and teachers made a human chain around the five students.A PCR van came to the North Gate of JNU at 11.30pm but was not allowed to enter. The possibility of a police crackdown led to a lot of tension but it never happened. And the five students stayed at the site of the relay hungerstrike for Rohith Vemula. In the morning, entry through North Gate was closed and teachers, JNU security and students formed a human chain to keep media away from the five students. There were no signs of any police action till late night on Monday.The students and teachers unions want the internal mechanism of the university to be activated. They want the criminal charges to be dropped because they are “made on the basis of fake videos”. JNUTA has demanded that the inquiry committee should be reconstituted since its credibility is now under a cloud. In fact, the committee has now extended its date for completing the inquiry to March 3.Meanwhile, at a meeting on Monday, police commissioner B S Bassi reportedly asked the case IOs and DCP south Prem Nath to wait till Tuesday to save themselves from any embarrassment. He was only conveying the prosecution’s suggestions. If Kanhaiya is granted bail and the high court slams police for its action and poor evidence, cops will have to rethink their strategy for others. This has reportedly been conveyed to the LG when Bassi met him on Monday.