JNU sedition case: Delhi Police transfer probe to unit that handles terror cases

The order includes the names of all the three students — JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya — with their age and addresses.

While Kumar was arrested February 12 from the JNU campus, Khalid and Bhattacharya were put under arrest after they surrendered before the police late Tuesday night.

Kumar was brought face to face with Khalid and Bhattacharya Friday, during one-day police custody, in RK Puram police station. The three were made to sit in a room and asked questions to corroborate the sequence of events on the JNU campus on February 9, when ‘anti-national’ slogans were allegedly raised at a programme held to mark the anniversary of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, said sources.

They gave different versions, added the sources. Khalid said he did not raise any anti-national slogans, while Bhattacharya said they were present during sloganeering and Kumar said he was not aware about any anti-national sloganeering, said the sources.

According to the sources, all three were shown videos of the event, collected by the police, to establish the identities of other persons raising slogans. Sources said they denied to identify the persons. Police are trying to identify persons who came from outside the city for the event, added the sources.

The case in connection with the alleged ‘anti-national’ slogans was registered at Vasant Kunj North police station on February 11 on the basis of a TV news video footage and some key witnesses of the February 9 event. A day after the case was registered, Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Prem Nath wrote to a senior officer for transferring the case to the National Investigation Agency or the Special Cell.

Meanwhile, Kumar was sent back to Tihar jail by a Delhi court on completion of a day’s police remand. Kumar was sent back to judicial custody, which will end on March 2, after the police told the court they did not need his further custody. The court had Thursday sent Kumar to one-day police custody after the prosecution said he was needed to be confronted with Khalid and Bhattacharya in view of discrepancies in their statements regarding the controversial JNU event.