Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai)

2016 JNU...

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They alleged Kumar argued with security guards when they objected to the event. The charge sheet said forensic reports establishe­d that 10 mobile phone video recordings collected after the protest and a video clip by television channel Zee News on the incident were not doctored and captured the slogans raised by the JNU students.

“The timing of filing of the charge sheet ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections clearly shows it to be politicall­y motivated. But we are happy that the charge sheet is finally filed. We demand a speedy trial now so that the truth comes out. I trust the judiciary of my country,” Kumar said. Apart from sedition, all 10 accused have been charged with voluntaril­y causing hurt, unlawful assembly, rioting and criminal conspiracy.

Khalid has been additional­ly charged for allegedly forging signatures of two JNU students to seek permission for the event on the campus.

The other seven accused who have been charged with sedition are former JNU students Mujeeb Hussain Gattoo and Khalid Bashir Bhat, practising dentist Aqueeb Hussain, two students from Jamia Milia Islamia University Umair Gul and Basharat Ali, Aligarh Muslim University student Muneeb Hussain Gattoo, and Rayees Rasool, who was then working as a freelance journalist. All seven are from Kashmir, the police said. They said that Khaild had invited the seven to the 2016 event, adding that no permission was granted for the protest. “A charge sheet should ideally be filed within 90 days after the FIR and not 90 days before the next election,” Khalid said on Monday.

“As the people of this country have prepared their own charge sheet against this anti-people, anti-poor and communal government, it has once again tried to deflect attention from its failures by raking up this issue just before elections,” he said in a joint statement with Bhattachar­ya. The 2016 incident had triggered protests across the country, prompting political parties to attack the government over the matter.

On Monday, senior Congress leader P Chidambara­m dubbed the charges against Kumar and others as “absurd”. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad leader and JNUSU’S former joint secre-

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