JNU Row: ‘Adequate’ Evidence Against Kanhaiya Kumar, Says Bassi

The arrest of the student union leader has reignited a row over freedom of expression in India, where some rights campaigners say the BJP government is using the British-era sedition law to clamp down on dissent.

The Press Council of India (PCI) today said that it has taken “suo motu” cognisance of the “reported attack on media at Patiala House Court” and has sought a report from the Delhi police on the matter.

The court adjourned the hearing till 2 p.m. on Thursday, permitting a team of lawyers to submit their report about their assessment of the situation that prevailed in the Patiala House court complex when they visited it on its post-lunch direction.

“The CPI-M strongly condemns the Delhi Police for not carrying out the directions of the Supreme Court to provide adequate security to Kanhaiya Kumar…”

The protesting lawyers, who had beaten up reporters at an earlier hearing into the case on Monday, returned chanting nationalist slogans and waving the Indian flag.

Kanhaiya Kumar, from the Leftist All India Students Federation (AISF), was arrested on February 12 on charges of raising anti-India slogans during a meeting on Kashmir in the campus.

Reacting to the development, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ashutosh said that it was shocking that a police commissioner who could not administer Delhi was being awarded.

Reacting to the statement, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said if Kumar applies for bail, then police will not object to it.

Police sources told AFP raids were taking place on premises in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and the Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir, where separatist violence has simmered for decades.