Students from Valley charged with sedition rearrested in K’taka
› They (Kashmiri students) have been arrested, produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody
R DILEEP, police commissioner, Hubballi-dharwad
BENGALURU: Three Kashmiri students, who were arrested by the police on Saturday in Hubballi on sedition charges for allegedly shouting pro-pakistan slogans and released on a bond on Sunday, were again arrested and produced for a hearing at the court of the judicial magistrate first class on Monday. The court remanded the three students to judicial custody till March 2 pending further investigation.
“They (Kashmiri students) have been arrested, produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody,” the Hubballidharwad police commissioner R Dileep told news agency PTI.
Earlier in the day, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Bharatiya Janata Party’s students’ wing, protested against the release of students.
After the hearing, when the students were being taken away from the court premises, people shouted slogans and threw footwear at them. Police intervened quickly to take away the three students, an ABVP protester said on condition of anonymity.
The district lawyers’ association in Hubballi has passed a resolution saying that none of its members would represent the accused. Guru Hiremath, president of the association said, “All the 1600 odd members have unanimously decided to not represent those accused of anti-national activities.”
Karnataka home minister Basvraj Bommai defended the police action. “Any anti-national will have to face the law, “Bommai said responding to question about the students being first arrested and released on a bond only to be rearrested. The police commissioner had asked for a report on the same and the matter was being investigated, he added.
The three civil engineering students at the KLE Institute of Technology — Talib Majeed, Basit Asif Sofi and Amir Mohiuddin Wahi from Shopian in Kashmir— were arrested on Saturday for allegedly raising pro-pakistan slogans and posting it on social media on the first anniversary of the terrorist attack that left 40 CRPF soldiers dead in Kashmir’s Pulwama on February 14 last year. They were let off on Sunday after execution of a bond under Section 169 of CRPC.
A video of their alleged celebration was widely shared on social media on Sunday prompting college prinicipal Basvraj Anami to suspend them pending investigation.