JNU sedition case: Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid appear before Delhi court

The ten accused — Kanhaiya Kumar, Syed Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain Gattoo, Muneeb Hussain Gattoo, Umar Gul, Rayees Rasool, Basharat Ali, and Khalid Bashir Bhatt — were summoned after the court took cognisance of the chargesheet on February 16.

Kanhaiya’s lawyers had also asked the court whether he could be exempt from the next date of hearing which would include scrutiny of the documents since he had “social commitments”. The court, however, said that it would consider the exemption applications on each date of hearing. The lawyers for various accused also prayed that the next date of hearing be taken up at the earliest.

In its chargesheet, police claimed Kumar led a procession and supported — along with others named as accused — seditious slogans raised on the JNU campus on February 9, 2016, during an event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The accused face charges under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 465 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 143, 149 (being a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).