JNU row: Kanhaiya Kumar files bail application in SC

The demands for the student’s freedom in the Indian capital were met by mobs of Hindu nationalists, including many lawyers, attacking students and accusing them of being anti-Indian.

“They were not lawyers”. We do not believe it is acceptable for a police force to enter a University, which is meant to be a forum for debate and discussion, and arrest a student leader and lock him up in jail even though he has not broken any law.

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested on sedition charges, on Thursday moved the Supreme Court for bail which it will hear on Friday.

The 28-year-old student leader was arrested on February 12 for allegedly raising anti-national slogans at the JNU event three days earlier against the 2013 execution of Afzal Guru, the Kashmiri militant blamed for the terror attack on Indian parliament in 2001.

“There was an issue with paperwork and the bail application will likely be heard on Monday (by the Delhi High Court)”, a member of Kumar’s legal team told AFP.

The IJA expresses grave concern over the recent attacks on journalists in the Patiala House court premises in New Delhi.

On Friday, a Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital report revealed that the student leader suffered multiple injuries, contradicting Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi’s claims that Kanhaiya Kumar was not assaulted.

Meanwhile, High Court Bar Association President Rajiv Khosla condemned the violence in the Patiala House court complex and urged lawyers to maintain peace and not do anything which would lead to such untoward incidents. On February 17, when he was produced in court, Kanhaiya said in his plea, he was punched by an unidentified person in the court room of the metropolitan magistrate.

Police said the rally was not authorized, but allowed the march to proceed to a central space used frequently for public protests. They were demanding action against those “indulging” in “anti-India” activities.

Luthra had yesterday objected to “out of the way” hearing of Kumar’s bail plea.

In Goa, the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) said it will collaborate with Leftist student unions countrywide to combat “a concerted effort by the ABVP and BJP to take control of campuses”.