Kanhaiya Kumar is sent back to Tihar after joint grilling

After confronting Kanhaiya Kumar for the first time with fellow university students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who too had been booked under sedition charges, the JNUSU president was sent back to Tihar Jail Friday night, placed under judicial custody again. A JNU security guard and a policeman, said to be witnesses who also recorded their statements in the sedition case, were purportedly seen in a sting video saying Kanhaiya did not raise any slogan at the controversial February 9 event.

Back at Tihar, the authorities put unprecedented security measures in place to ensure Kanahiya is not physically harmed inside Asia’s largest prison. Fearing a risk to his life, CCTV cameras, special prison staff and Tamil Nadu Special Police personnel were deployed outside his cell to ensure he is not attacked by other inmates.

Strict orders have been issued to keep the student leader in a locked cell around the clock, and to lock up other inmates when he is taken out of the ward.

At the R.K. Puram police station, where Kanhaiya was again interrogated on Friday, a police team questioned him separately for about six hours, after which he was first confronted with Umar Khalid, and later with Anirban. In the afternoon, the three were for the first time grilled together in one room.

Kanhaiya repeatedly told the investigators he came out of his room on February 9 only after he got to know about a possible confrontation between two groups over the event inside the campus. While Khalid has so far denied having indulged in any anti-national sloganeering, Anirban has challenged claims that the slogans mentioned by the police were anti-national in nature. The police is also trying to ascertain who were “real” organisers of the event.

The police slapped sedition charges on Kanhaiya for allegedly raising “anti-national” slogans on February 9, but a security guard at the campus and a policeman who were eyewitnesses, who have also recorded statements in the case, were purportedly seen in a sting video saying the student leader did not raise any slogan.

Another sting operation was done on two of three lawyers who assaulted the journalists, students and teachers at the Patiala House court complex. The lawyers were arrested earlier this week. In the latest sting by a TV channel, the security guard who identifies himself as Amarjeet Kumar is seen claiming he was present at the controversial event. Asked about Kanhaiya, he said the student leader gave a speech at the Ganga dhaba after the end of a march that started from Sabarmati dhaba. He also claimed he had not seen Kanhaiya raising any slogan.

The guard, in the sting video, is also seen saying around 10-15 outsiders were present at the event, which was held despite permission not being given by the JNU authorities.

The other person, who identified himself as Delhi Police head constable Rambi, was seen saying he was present at the event in plain clothes. He was also seen saying the JNUSU president was present in the crowd but he did not raise any slogans.