The Delhi high court Wednesday gave 6-month interim bail to Kanhaiya Kumar, the Jawaharlal Nehru students’ union president who was arrested on sedition charge.
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It turned out that that Mr. Kumar was taken out of jail premises through a residential colony for prison staff. He was then driven to Hari Nagar police station without the media getting even a sniff of the developments.
The high court observed the police was not disputing that in the video footage of the incident, Kanhaiya was not seen raising any anti-national slogans. Kumar was granted interim bail for six months by the Delhi High Court on Wednesday on a personal bond of Rs 10,000.
He was arrested on February 12 in the case which was registered under charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy.
Kumar was arrested and placed in judicial custody after being charged with sedition for “anti-national” sloganeering on campus on February 9.
The report has also stated that it did not find any “conclusive evidence” against JNU student Umar Khalid, despite the fact that he was present in a few demonstrations where anti national’ slogans were shouted.
Delhi Police, represented through Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, told the bench that they do not have any video in this regard but there was evidence that the JNUSU President was raising slogans and “the speech (by him) was more than political”. But the official said that “anti-India slogans were indeed raised in the campus”.
The DM’s report said they could not find any link between what Kanhaiya Kumar said and the anti-India slogans raised at the gathering.
The bail order triggered wild celebrations in JNU campus where hundreds of students, dominantly from leftist groups, celebrated, shouting slogans hailing Kanhaiya Kumar. But we are happy at least he will be free from jail, ” Zutshi said.
Kanhaiya, is also among the eight students who were academically debarred by the university on the basis of a preliminary enquiry report from the varsity’s high-level committee. He was the organiser of the event and his role should be further investigated, it said.
Meanwhile, two separate meetings of the students union and JNU teachers association were underway to decide the future course of action. This was revealed by a forensic examination of the videos ordered by Delhi government and conducted by Truth Lab in Hyderabad.
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Meanwhile, the Delhi Government asked in the court that how can Kanhaiya be held responsible if people from outside JNU came and raised slogans.
