Umar Khalid, Anirban surrender to Delhi Police

Mehra said Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi had said Kanhaiya’s bail plea will not be opposed, but after the court’s hearing, Jain told reporters that police will oppose it. The counsel further said that there was no connection between Kumar and the other two students arrested in the case as they belong to different student wings.

Police had demanded seven days’ custody of the duo, who had allegedly organised a controversial event at JNU on February 9 where anti-India slogans were alleged to have been raised.

The report also said that both of them were questioned in two phases and the interrogation was conducted in-camera.

The Delhi police, however, did not agree to the place the petitioners wished to surrender, saying they have some inputs due to which the place mentioned by the accused was not accessible to them. Both students, in their appeal to the HC, had sought the court’s permission to surrender at a time and place of their choice, a plea that the HC judge had refused to entertain immediately.

Thereafter, the three vehicles drove to Vasant Kunj police station, then to Vasant Vihar police station and then through R K Puram before finally taking the students to South Campus police station.

The 9 February protest over the 2013 hanging of a Kashmiri man allegedly saw the chanting of anti-India slogans. Khalid and Bhattacharya, along with three others, went into hiding on February 12 when Kumar was arrested.

ASG Mehta told the court that Delhi Police will ensure safety of lawyers and the accused in the case.

In an apparent U-turn in the police’s approach in the case, senior officials now say that they are waiting for the students to surrender on their own and also expect the JNU authorities to persuade them in doing so.

Umar Khalid has reportedly accepted that he did organise the event. During the hearing, Justice Pratibha Rani made it clear that the police have the statutory right to seek Kumar’s remand till February 27. “Despite the Supreme Court’s direction, the lawyers abused the apex court-appointed committee of advocates, who visited Patiala House court complex to take stock of the ground-level reality”, the students’ advocate submitted.