JNU row: Sedition arrest later, police want NIA and Special Cell to come in

“The matter needs probe regarding the links between the JNU students and terrorist Afzal Guru as the students were against the sentence of Afzal Guru,” the DCP’s letter stated.

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Afzal Guru was convicted and sentenced to death in the December 2001 attack on Parliament House. He was hanged in Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013. This year, some JNU students had organised a meeting on February 9 to mark his death anniversary, distributing pamphlets announcing a “cultural evening of protests with poets, artists, singers, writers, students, intellectuals and cultural activists”.

Police sources said the south district police, other than seeking transfer of the case to the Special Cell, also want the NIA involved to uncover what it calls the “links” of the students.

According to a police officer, the NIA has already been sounded since the NIA Act specifies that in any case relating to a scheduled offence, the officer in-charge of the police station shall forward the report to the state government which in turn should send it to the central government as soon as possible.

“Where the central government is of the opinion that the offence is a scheduled offence and it is a fit case to be investigated by the agency, it shall direct the agency to investigate the said offence,” the officer quoted from the NIA Act.

A status report on the JNU case has already been submitted to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Lt Governor Najeeb Jung by Police Commissioner B S Bassi. Sources said the matter of transfer of the case has also been discussed.