JNU case: Court lashes out at Delhi govt for delaying sanctions to prosecute Kanhaiya, others

The court had earlier questioned Delhi Police for filing a charge sheet against Kumar and others without procuring the sanctions. “Why did you file (the charge sheet) without approval? You don’t have a legal department,” the court had said. The court had then granted time till today to procure the sanction.  According to official records, police had applied for sanction just two hours before filing the chargesheet on January 14.

The police had chargesheeted Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the campus during an event on February 9, 2016. Police also charged Khalid and Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event to mark the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

In its chargesheet, the Delhi Police has relied on video footage from six mobile phones, of which at least three belong to current or former members of the ABVP’s JNU unit, and one belongs to a constable.

Delhi Police fails to procure prosecution sanction in JNU sediton case. Court directed the IO to ask the Govt to expedite the sanction decision and that the authorities can not sit on files for an indefinite period. @IndianExpress

— Anand Mohan (@mohanreports) February 6, 2019

While there is a lot of speculation around the Delhi government’s position on the issue, The Indian Express was told by authoritative sources that the nature of the case led the Home Department knocking on the door of the Law Department, to seek clarity on what the “guidelines” are.

What made this exchange particularly significant is the fact that the Home Department had to seek guidelines as there is no immediate precedence for it to refer to in charting the course ahead. The Home Department, which controls the Directorate of Prosecution, mentioned in the file that the last precedence of a similar nature dates back to 1982.