Kanhaiya named in FIR only after TV report

The sedition case against Jawaharlal Nehru University student l eader Kanhaiya Kumar appears to be an afterthought, relying mostly on a TV report.

When the station house officer ( SHO) of a nearby police station visited the JNU campus on February 9, he saw students at an evening rally commemorating the anniversary of the execution of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist.

Students were accused of shouting anti-India slogans and making incendiary remarks at the event.

But the police officer didn’t find anything wrong at the rally that warranted an immediate FIR. He also had a word with his staff and intelligence officers present there.

The next day, the police filed an FIR after watching a Zee TV report that showed Kumar at the function. They sought clippings from the channel before filing the case.

Also, a police intelligence inspector’s report said leaders of the ultra-radical Democratic Students Union (DSU), including linchpin Umar Khalid, had gathered and shouted slogans.

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