Was not aware of Afzal Guru event, Kanhaiya Kumar to cops

Interrogation report of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested last week on sedition charges, says that any anti-national activities did not take place in the university and Mr Kumar was unaware of posters about the cultural programme against the death sentence of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt. He reportedly told the police that he does not endorse anti-national activities and that the recent events inside the campus were “wrong.”

In the interrogation report, a copy of which has been accessed by this newspaper, the JNU student leader said that no programme was organised by him and his political party between 3 pm and 8.30 pm on February 9 in the JNU campus. Asked about the names of students that had appeared on these posters, Mr Kumar told the police that none of these were from his party and that they were the students of the university.

Mr Kumar told the investigators that he had visited Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir once in 2011 or 2012 to participate in an university seminar. He outrightly denied having ever visited Pakistan. About the video footage showing him with fellow doctoral student Umar Khalid, who is suspected by the police of having link with the case, and other students, he said only one, Aprajita Raja, was the member of the AISF, the student group to which he belongs.

Asked whether he had made attempts to stop the students at the controversial event from allegedly raising anti-India slogans, Mr Kumar said he was not present at that time at the venue. The report, quoting Mr Kumar, said: “I was not part of the programme which happened at Sabarmati, but being president of the students’ union, I had to take part to stop the fight and clashes on the road from the Sabarmati Dhaba to the Ganga Dhaba. I appealed to the security guards to stop the fight and also appealed to the students not to clash with each other. During this, no anti-national sloganeering happened.”

The JNUSU leader said that when he reached the spot the police was already present at both the dhabas. Asked whether he had informed the JNU administration and its security about the alleged anti-national activity, Mr Kumar said he was not aware about any such incident.

According to the report, Mr Kumar told the police on February 9 he was sleeping during day-time and had woken up at 5 pm. “After freshening up, I came out of my hostel room to have tea and snacks. Outside the hostel, some students were discussing amongst themselves that members of the ABVP had blocked a road near at Sabarmati Hostel when another group of students was organising some cultural programme. The ABVP members blocked the road and that likely led to clashes between the two groups.” They said the situation could become violent and at any time a fight could erupt.

Holding food in my hand, I along with a few other students reached the Sabarmati Hostel on motorcycles. I saw a police PCR van, policemen and security guards in huge numbers were standing there. On the other hand, ABVP members were shouting slogans. I stopped there and then I saw another group of students were taking out a march shouting slogans.”

Quoting Mr Kumar, the report said, “Both the groups, started abusing each other and hitting each other. I intervened and tried to stop the fight by making a human chain between both the groups. I also tried to stop both the groups from indulging in any violence. The other group again started marching towards the Ganga Dhaba and the ABVP tried to stop them. This continued till both the groups reached the dhaba where the police was deployed in huge numbers.”

“After the police intervention, both the groups were was separated, but they started shouting slogans against each other. However, no anti-national sloganeering took place at the Ganga Dabha. I tried to pacify both the groups. Then I addressed them and gave a speech condemning the entire episode. After my speech ended, both the groups, after a few minutes, dispersed.”

Mr Kumar, the president of the JNU students’ union, said he agrees with the fact that freedom of speech and reasonable space in the university was a fundamental right, but raising anti-national slogans and supporting any anti-national group was gross misuse of fundamental rights given by the Constitution of India.