india

Updated: Jan 16, 2019 09:20 IST

The Delhi Police on Tuesday said that they have charged former JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar with sedition based on the testimony of six fellow students, nine security guards and some of the university faculty members, who confirmed that Kumar had allegedly raised anti-national slogans and had led the protest on the campus on February 9, 2016.

According to the police, one JNU student — whose statement has been incorporated in the chargesheet as a witness against Kanhaiya Kumar — was not a member of any political party. The other five students of the university were associated with the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad (ABVP).

Saurabh Sharma, one of the complainants, said that out of the five JNU students named as witnesses in the chargesheet, two are members of ABVP and three others were sympathisers of the party.

The police also said that the eyewitnesses had seen Kumar accompanying the procession of JNU students forming unlawful assembly and raising anti-national slogans. It also added that in a 30-minute video footage, collected officially by Zee News, Kumar is seen accompanying the procession.

Police said that Kumar was identified in the videos by eyewitnesses, who also said that he later led students to raise antinational slogans. The police have stated that an SMS, which was retrieved by Forensic Science Laboratory, was sent to Kumar by Umar Khalid asking him to reach Sabarmati dhaba as the permission to conduct the event had been cancelled.

The police also said that the location of the mobile phone at the place of occurrence has also been used as evidence against Kanhaiya. It also said that pamphlets of the event were retrieved by experts from Khalid’s e-mail id.

Khalid’s call detail records also proved his contact with Anirban Bhattacharya, Mujeeb, Muneeb, Umair Gul and Kanhaiya.

On Monday, the police had filed a 1,200-page chargesheet against 10 people — including Kumar, Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya — accusing them of sedition and raising anti-India slogans.