Delhi Police on Friday questioned at least four out of the 30 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students who were asked to join the probe into a 2016 sedition case involving former student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. Police said the JNU students who came to record their statements before the Special Cell officers included Shehla Rashid, Mohit Pandey, Chintu Kumari and Kaushik Raj. The statements were recorded at the administrative block of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Sources said that the four students were called for questioning for long hours. “The thirty students were to join the investigation on Thursday however they were not available. On Friday, a team of the Special Cell officers went to the JNU campus for questioning. All along the questioning process, police recorded their version in an audio tape.”
Police sources further said that these 30 students were shortlisted for questioning by the Special Cell after videos went viral. The case was registered by the Vasant Kunj North police station but later in March last year the case was transferred to the Special Cell.
Police said that the statements of these 30 students will play a cruicial role in the police investigation to establish the sedition charges against (JNUSU President) Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattachaya and others for sedition.
Khalid, Anirban and Kanhaiya are accused of raising anti-India slogans on the campus at a meeting organised on February 9 last year in memory of 2001 Indian Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.