Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been charged with sedition, filed his application for bail in the Supreme Court Thursday. The plea will be heard Friday, Feb. 19.
Meanwhile, an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report on anti-India sloganeers at the JNU event, which was sent Wednesday to the Home Ministry and the Delhi Police, doesn't name Kumar. The student leader is not mentioned in the report at all, according to NDTV. Other students have been identified and named in the report.
Six advocates representing Kanhaiya Kumar filed a report Thursday in the Supreme Court in a sealed cover on events that took place Wednesday, reports Press Trust of India.
The Delhi Police had said Wednesday Kumar would not be stopped from applying for bail. Kumar had been sent Wednesday to 14-day judicial custody till March 2 by the Supreme Court after he had been held in police custody for three days. Kumar has been placed in the same cell in Tihar jail in Delhi where Parliament attack-accused Afzal Guru was kept. The student leader has been kept alone and is under CCTV surveillance.
He was picked up by the police last week under sedition charges as he is believed to have raised anti-India slogans during a Feb. 9 event in JNU.
"I am not giving Kanhaiya Kumar a clean chit, but if he applies for bail we are not going to oppose it," Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi was quoted as saying Thursday by IBN Live.
Following his arrest, protests have been staged by both left-wing and right-wing student groups. While the right-wing groups demanded he be charged and penalised for his speech, the left-wingers are opposing the Central government's actions.
Kumar, in a written appeal, tweeted by Bassi Wednesday, distanced himself from the anti-India slogans chanted inside the JNU premises. He also appealed to the masses to not disrupt peace.
Late Wednesday, three Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP) leaders quit their offices citing differences with the organisation regarding the JNU incident and the Rohith Vemula row, among other things. They also condemned the attack on students, faculty, media and Kanhaiya Kumar in the Patiala House Court in their statement.
"Anti-national slogans on Feb. 9 in university campus were very unfortunate and heart breaking. Whosoever responsible for that act must be punished as per the law but the way NDA government tackling the whole issue, the oppression on Professors, repeated lawyer attacks on Media and Kanhaiya kumar in court premises is unjustifiable and we think there is a difference between interrogation and crushing ideology and branding entire left as Anti-national (sic)," said ABVP JNU unit joint secretary Pradeep Narwal, ABVP School of Social Sciences (SSS) unit president Rahul Yadav, and ABVP SSS Unit secretary Ankit Hans while resigning from their respective posts.
