JNU case: Court tells Delhi govt expedite process to prosecute Kanhaiya, others

New Delhi: The Patiala House Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi police to request the state government to expedite sanction to prosecute former JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in a sedition case.

The court said the Delhi government cannot sit on the file related to sanction. Giving more time to Delhi police to obtain the mandatory sanction, Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat adjourned the matter to February 28.

The court told the police to ask the authorities concerned to expedite the sanctions. The Delhi police is supposed to get the Delhi government’s nod before prosecuting in sedition cases, as mandated under the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, the Aam Aadmi Party government has so far not given a go ahead in this case.

On 14 January, the police filed the chargesheet against Kumar and former JNU students Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven others at the Patiala House court. It said Kumar was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans during an event in the varsity on 9 February, 2016, to mark the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

The police told the court that the sanctions are pending with the Delhi government and are expected in a matter of days.  “Authorities can’t sit on file for an indefinite period,” the court said.

The court had earlier questioned why the Delhi Police had filed a chargesheet against Kumar and others without procuring the requisite sanctions and granted them time till 6 February.

The file requesting sanction, which was submitted to the Delhi government’s home department, reportedly just two hours before police filed the chargesheet in the case on 14 January, made its way to the law department, and is lying with Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain at present.

According to the sources, the file had also become a point of friction between Delhi law minister Kailash Gahlot and Principal Secretary (Law) A.K. Mendiratta. Mr Mendiratta, reportedly, forwarded the file to the home department without routing it through Gehlot first. Mr Mendiratta had argued that the competent authority in such cases was the home minister’s office, while Gahlot slapped a showcause notice on the former.

Meanwhile, the home department too is unlikely to grant the required sanctions at such a short notice. It was reported that the file reached the home minister on 21 January, but has since remained with the minister.

“It took police three years to file the chargesheet. How can they expect the government to read and approve the file in a week? Things don’t work this way. One has to understand the case and the listed evidence. The minister neither approved the prosecution sanction nor denied it,” said a Delhi government official to media.

The police said a video shot by a news channel and clips shot by students present at the spot show that Khalid, Bhattacharya and Ashutosh were raising slogans.

It added, however, that the slogans raised by Ashutosh were not anti-national, unlike those by Khalid and Bhattacharya.

Khalid raised slogans as shown in the videos and mobile clips, police said, citing a video which shows him saying, “The programme is against occupation of Kashmir by the Indian State.”