10 am: ANI reported that Umar Khalid and four other JNU students accused of sedition, who are inside the university campus, will move the Delhi High Court seeking security for their surrender to police.
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As soon as the hearing on Kanhaiya’s bail plea commenced before Justice Pratibha Rani, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta told the court that police have a statutory right to take police custody of an accused for 15 days and due to new developments Kanhaiya’s custodial remand is necessary.
Meanwhile, a different bench dismissed a plea filed by a lawyer seeking direction to Delhi Police to enter JNU campus and arrest Umar Khalid and other students, who allegedly raised anti-national slogans.
Delhi High Court on Tuesday had asked both to surrender even as the Delhi Police Commissioner, BS Bassi, warned the five accused students that all options were open to act against them if they failed to cooperate. On 20 February, the Delhi Police issued a look out notice for the two students as well as Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash.
According to sources, a medical check was conducted on both the students in the police station and they were questioned for around five hours.
A senior police official said that Kanhaiya and Khalid may be interrogated together and that police will oppose the former’s bail plea in the High Court today.
Kanhaiya, who was arrested on February 12, was in police custody till February 17.
The report also specifically lists 29 slogans which were witnessed to have been raised at the event and the list doesn’t include the “Pakistan Zindabad” phrase which was mentioned in the statement attached with the FIR, registered on the basis of a video clip obtained from a news channel, they said. The Supreme Court had observed that if it entertained a bail plea, it would set a wrong precedent and directed that it be expeditiously heard by the Delhi high court. Indian police said today they had arrested two students wanted in a sedition case that has sparked major protests after the pair gave themselves up following almost two weeks on the run.
The Delhi police had earlier said that the JNU’s internal inquiry found evidence against eight students including Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid.
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Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) president Kumar was arrested on sedition charges last week for organising an event on Afzal Guru, leading to his arrest and an assault on journalists attending last Wednesday.
