New Delhi: After a 1200 pages charge sheet was filed by the Delhi Police in JNU sedition case, the court on Saturday had refused to take cognizance of the filed charge sheet as it was filed without sanction from the concerned authority.
The Delhi Police claimed that it has written to the Delhi government seeking approval for the prosecution of former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in the sedition case.
However, AAP government spokesperson told TOI on Monday that “no minister was even aware of the file, leave alone of any such case being put up for approval.”
But sources have confirmed that the file was under “examination” in the home department and yet had not reached the minister’s table for approval.
A city court in Delhi on Saturday slammed the Delhi police and refused to take cognizance of the charge sheet.
“Why did you file (the chargesheet) without approval…Don’t you have a legal department?” metropolitan magistrate Deepak Sherawat has asked.
The Delhi cops were given time until February 6 for getting the required sanction.
“We are still reading the file and no views have been formed on it,” said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.
Sources claims that the prosecution sanction file was sent from the office of deputy secretary (home) to the office of principal secretary (home) on January 14 and was later sent to the office of home minister Satyendar Jain on Monday morning.
Senior Delhi police officers claim to have sent that the 1,200-page charge sheet to the AAP government just hours before it was filed before the court.
“We had even mentioned in the chargesheet that the sanction from the government was awaited. We have also informed the court about the same,” a senior police officer said.
The Police has filed chargesheet against Kumar and university students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, besides others, alleging the former JNUSU president led a procession and supported anti-India slogans during an event in February 2016 to commemorate the hanging of Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru.
Under the Criminal Procedure Code, the court cannot take cognisance of the police’s chargesheet without sanction from the home department of the state concerned.
Offences against the State (like waging war against the Government of India, sedition etc) would require sanction from the State Home department.
In this case, the police have invoked section 124A of IPC relating to the charge of sedition against Kanhaiya Kumar and other JNU students.