New Delhi: Three JNU students were questioned today by a police team probing a sedition case over an event in the university where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised last year.
The Delhi Police had served a notice to Jawaharlal Nehru University, asking 30 of its students to join the probe.
Three students appeared before the team of Special Cell and were questioned today, sources said.
Sources claimed that they were quizzed about their presence at the event where the slogans were allegedly raised.
They were given a questionnaire that some JNU students alleged was biased and had questions like “Have you been to Kashmir?”
However, the police said that it was a “general interrogation”. The other students who have been named in the notice are likely to join probe tomorrow.
Some of the students, whose names figure in the notice are AISA (All India Students’ Association) leader Shehla Rashid, and Aprojitha Raja, the daughter of CPI national secretary D Raja. They were active in a movement demanding release of the three students who were arrested in the case.
The police haven’t filed a charge-sheet in the case and are examining witnesses.
There is a likelihood that apart from the three students named in the FIR–former JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya– more people might be named in the charge-sheet, whenever it is filed.
The arrest of Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya on charges of sedition for allegedly organising an event against the hanging of Afzal Guru had triggered a huge controversy with the opposition political parties slamming the police for “working at the behest of ruling BJP”.
The controversial programme organised last year sparked an outrage after allegations were made that anti-national slogans were raised in the university.
The arrest of Kumar catapulted him to national fame and resulted in student protests across the country.
After footage of the event was found to be authentic, some students, including two Kashmiris, were questioned by the Special Cell sleuths last year.
–PTI