JNU row: Delhi police issues lookout notice for three youths

New Delhi: The Delhi police has issued a lookout notice for three youth in connection with the controversial event at JNU last week in which anti-India slogans were allegedly raised. The police communicated the matter to the Foreign Regional Registration Office (FRRO), asking them to alert airport authorities so that the three suspects, believed to be JNU students, do not leave the country.

The police also questioned journalist Sadiq Naqvi, a friend of Umar Khalid, who is said to be one of the organisers of the controversial event. While JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, charged with sedition, may have to spend another couple of days in prison as the Delhi high court is likely to hear on Tuesday his bail plea in which he has contended that he was “falsely implicated”, a large number of students, teachers and senior politicians from different political parties demanded the immediate release of the JNUSU president.

Delhi police chief B.S. Bassi again found himself in a spot as he hit out at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and a senior journalist based on a tweet put out by a “parody account”, inviting ridicule from netizens. Days before his retirement, the AAP demanded that Mr Bassi be sacked and charged that his loyalty was not to the police force, but to the RSS.

In yet another attempt to harass the student leader, a contempt of court petition was filed in the Supreme Court for his alleged seditious slogans on the JNU campus glorifying Afzal Guru, convicted in the Parliament attack case. Despite notices being issued to three lawyers, including Vikram Singh Chauhan who led a protest march at India Gate on Friday, only two had showed up before the police so far. Lawyer Om Sharma was arrested and later released by the police after four days of notices being served to him. Irked by the one-sided coverage by a section of media against the JNU students, the varsity restricted the entry of mediapersons and other outsiders.

During its investigations, the police questioned a journalist friend of Umar Khalid. A police team was also sent to the paternal house of Mr Naqvi in Bijnor, UP. The journalist was first taken to Hauz Khas Village where he reportedly lives in a rented accommodation. The Delhi police had asked him to appear at the Vasant Vihar police station where he was reportedly questioned for several hours. He was reportedly asked several questions about his friendship with Umar Khalid. Besides Mr Khalid, the police has also issued lookout notices for Anirban Bhattacharya and Riyaz. The three have been identified as the main conspirators in connection with the event, over which a case of sedition was registered and the JNUSU president arrested.

At Delhi University, hundreds of students and faculty members came out in support of Kanhaiya Kumar. Participants, staging a protest outside DU’s Arts Faculty on the North Campus, said they would resist all attempts to criminalise JNU and its students. They said all-out efforts would be made to free Mr Kanhaiya Kumar. Former ABVP member Pradeep Narwal, who resigned from the party earlier this week in protest against the handling of the JNU row by the government, has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure “security” and “respect” to all the university students.

Accusing the Narendra Modi government of launching a hate campaign against the people who do not follow RSS ideology, the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the CPI(M) demanded the release of Mr Kanhaiya Kumar. “Following the RSS ideology... The Narendra Modi-led government has unleashed a hate campaign against them (those against RSS ideology),” CPI(M) state secretary and MLA M.Y. Tarigami said.

Coming out in support of Mr Kanhaiya Kumar, senior Samajawadi Party leader Azam Khan said he did not utter anything which may be termed “anti-national”. “Versions of Kumar’s speech that appeared in various telecasts did not show what the Union government has been saying.”

Hitting out at film director and BJP supporter Ashoke Pandit for also demanding interrogation of JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora, former J&K CM Omar Abdullah said on Twitter: Now being a Kashmiri Muslim is crime enough to warrant interrogation. BTW (by the way) it’s Shehla not Sheila but what the hell!”.

As Madhya Pradesh BJP is gearing up to hold a statewide protest on Sunday to condemn the shouting of “anti-national” slogans at JNU, the state Congress said it would observe “Freedom from Sanghvad Day” on Monday.

The Delhi police chief found himself in a spot as he hit out at Mr Kejriwal and a senior TV journalist based on a tweet put out by a “parody account”. Irked by the tweet that ridiculed him, Mr Bassi termed the Delhi CM and a TV journalist as “self-styled appraisers”, overlooking the fact that the latter had left social media last year itself due to the menace of online abuse.

When contacted, the journalist said he was not perturbed but certainly “surprised” that the person behind the parody handle managed to bluff the top cop. “He (Bassi) should have been careful. But it’s fine, I had a good laugh over it. We journalists are anyway receiving flak left, right and centre. When I was active on Twitter I had repeatedly warned people about this impersonation.”

In the Supreme Court, advocate Vineet Dhanda has urged that contempt of court charges be brought against Mr Kanhaiya Kumar, and other leaders Umar Khalid, Lenin Kumar, Anirban Bhattacharya, and Shehla Rashid Shora, and against S.A.R. Geelani and Ali Javed for their remarks at the Press Club of India. He alleged that the “contemnors” have “scandalised” and “lowered the authority of the apex court” by projecting and calling the judges of the Supreme Court killers.  He said the respondents “are anti-social and anti-national elements who in the garb of a cultural event organised an event on the JNU campus where slogans against our country were raised and supported by the young generation”.

The “doctored” video allegedly showing Mr Kanhaiya Kumar raising anti-India slogans, which was sent to a forensic laboratory, was broadcast by certain news channels. It also went viral on social media and was widely used to condemn the organisers of the controversial event.

Later, another set of news channels started broadcasting different versions of the same video, questioning its authenticity. A source said, “We got to know about the video showing the JNU student leader raising anti-India slogans and we also came across allegations that the video was doctored. So we have sent it for forensic examination.”

Refusing to comment on the video clips which the police have probed so far, a senior official claimed that the charges in the case can be established with the help of the footage which the police have in their possession.