The Delhi Police was criticised today by a court for filing a chargesheet – against Kanhaiya Kumar, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union leader – without the Delhi government’s approval.
Asked why the chargesheet was filed without the Delhi government’s approval, police said that the approval will be acquired within ten days.
In the 1,200-pages long chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar, he has been accused of holding an ‘anti-national’ event inside the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi in February, 2016. The event had allegedly been organised to protest the hanging of Afzal Guru – the mastermind behind the attack on the Indian Parliament. The same chargesheet also mentions Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven other students from Jammu and Kashmir – Aquib Hussain, Mujib Hussain, Muneeb Hussain Umar Gul, Rayeea Rasool, Bashir Bhat and Basharat.
Pointing out that the magisterial inquiry had concluded that no student of JNU had been involved in the event, Kanhaiya thanked the Delhi Police for filing the chargesheet after three years. Calling the move ‘politically motivated’ as it has been filed just before the upcoming elections in May, the student leader said that he trusted the judiciary of his country.
Umar Khalid has also denied the charges levelled against him. He viewed the move to be an attempt to ‘change the narrative’ ahead of elections. In a statement, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya have said that they are innocent and have ‘full faith in the court’.
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