NEW DELHI: In its latest report on the JNU row, Delhi Police has cited evidence collected by the varsity’s internal inquiry committee suggesting that eight students, including JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, allegedly indulged in raising unconstitutional slogans.
But, on the basis of the evidence collected by the investigators so far on their own, the police in its report has failed to pinpoint anyone who the eye witnesses, including police personnel and JNU staff, had specifically claimed to have seen raising anti-national slogans.
In its report sent to the Commissioner’s office on Sunday, the police also maintained that they “did not enter into the JNU complex without requisition from the concerned authorities”, sources said. The report also specifically lists 29 slogans which were witnessed to have been raised at the event and the list doesn’t include the “Pakistan Zindabad” phrase which was mentioned in the statement attached with the FIR, registered on the basis of a video clip obtained from a news channel, they said.
The same slogan was also mentioned in a status report prepared by the police soon after the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar. Citing the findings of the internal inquiry committee of JNU, the police in its report said that evidence against the eight students include misinterpretation of the proposed event as a cultural evening, forcibly holding the event despite the permission being withdrawn, creating law & order situation in the campus and raising unconstitutional slogans.
In the report, the police also said that local police present at the event witnessed unabated raising of anti-national and unconstitutional slogans by one group, while the another group was countering them, they said. But the report still fails to clarify who were the ones actually involved in such sloganeering.
The list of evidence collected by the investigators against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar include his “presence” in a group raising unconstitutional and anti-national slogans, attributed to eye-witnesses and the news channel video clip on the basis of which the sedition case was registered.
The report has also mentioned Umar Khalid and Anirban as the main organisers of the event but again did not specify whether the two of them were particularly spotted raising anti-national slogans.
Five JNU students, including Umar Khalid, who the police were looking out for across cities, resurfaced in the varsity’s campus on Sunday night but the police have not arrested them yet. In an apparent U-turn in the police’s approach in the case, senior officials now claim that they are waiting for the students to surrender on their own, but the five have ruled it out.
Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi had yesterday said that the final call will be taken by the investigating officer of the case and to enter the varsity’s campus or not will be the decision of DCP (South) Prem Nath who is heading the probe.
Police had registered a case of sedition in connection with an event held at Jawaharlal University campus, to mark the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, in which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
On February 12, the police arrested JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar in connection with the case and started a search operation for others, including Umar Khalid and Anirban.
PTI