JNU row: SC to hear JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar’s bail plea today

India’s Supreme Court (SC) has refused to hear the bail plea of students’ union leader Kanhaiya Kumar – whose arrest on sedition charges has sparked protests across the country – and has, instead, diverted the case to the Delhi High Court. The HC is likely to hear the plea on Monday.

The issue continued to generate passions, with hundreds of Left student activists blocking trains in Bihar demanding Kanhaiya Kumar’s release and hundreds of lawyers taking out a noisy march in Delhi denouncing him. “You are leading a unsafe proposition”. ” …judges of the apex court have been projected as killers despite the free and fair trial of the convict and it clearly tantamount to criminal contempt”, said the petitioner Vineet Dhanda, a Supreme Court lawyer.

The Supreme Court also asked the Government of India to provide ample security to Kanhaiya and his lawyer Vrinda Grover. Further, it said, “Remember, this is not the only case of this type”.

On the plea that the situation in the High Court also would not be much different, as it is not only in the same city but also in the “same hexagon”, the Bench said it was taking remedial step to remove their fear of assault.

On Wednesday, Kanhaiya was thrashed by a group of lawyers at Patiala House Court complex ahead of his hearing.

Reacting to this development, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said, “My officers have told me that the allegations (of attack on Kanhaiya) are incorrect”.

CAMBRIDGE, MA-A group of Harvard University students are organizing a rally to express their solidarity with the students of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University which has been in turmoil since February 12 when the Indian government ordered the police to enter the campus and arrest a student.

“We deem it appropriate to request the High Court to take such appropriate steps as it deems fit and proper to ensure the peaceful conduct of the proceedings”. The police are now looking out for three students as they are alleged to have organised the Afzal Guru event at the JNU. Witnesses said some of the protesters were carrying Pakistani and Daesh flags.

In a damning indictment of the police, it said the statement, which was issued by the force as an appeal on behalf of Kumar was not written by him voluntarily.

The Central government had been apathetic to higher education in general and the JNU incidents must not be used to repress the democratic functioning of the institutions of higher learning.