New Delhi, Mar 29
A Delhi court Friday pulled up the Delhi Police after the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) who was ordered to file a report in the 2016 JNU sedition case failed to show up. The court issued fresh summons against the DCP.
During the previous hearing on March 11, the court had sought a report from the DCP assigned to the case after the Delhi Police said it was yet to receive requisite sanctions to prosecute the accused.
In a chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police on January 14, Kanhaiya and former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya have been accused of raising “anti-national slogans” during an event on campus on February 9, 2016. The event was to mark the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru. They have been charged under IPC 124 A (sedition), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 465 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine, forged document), 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 149 (unlawful assembly with common object), 147 (rioting) and 120B. The three students, who were arrested on February 11, 2016, are out on bail. The others named in the chargesheet include Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Muneeb Hussain, Umar Gul, Rayeea Rasool, Bashir Bhat and Basharat. On March 1 too, the court had expressed its displeasure over the Delhi Police not being able to get requisite sanctions. “You (Delhi Police) took three years (for filing chargesheet). Now they (Delhi government) will also take three years (for granting sanctions)… Whether sanction has been granted or not, I will proceed with the case,” Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat said.
