As Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar is still undecided on “handing” over the accused students to police, the five students charged with sedition who resurfaced on the campus on Sunday wrote to High Court that they have nothing to hide and are willing to cooperate with police in its enquiry, seeking security.
Also, the students maintained that they will not appear before the university probe panel as they have lost faith in the administration.
“They have written that we are not absconding and have nothing to hide. All the evidence on basis of which police want to arrest them is based on concocted facts. The videos making rounds in the media have been distorted thus the students have said they are on campus and would help police in any kind of investigation,” JNU Students’ Union vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora told The Pioneer.
She said, there was no question of ‘surrendering’ as the students have not done anything ‘criminal’.
“They will cooperate with police for which they have to summon them but that has also not been conveyed to us yet,” Shehla added.
The campus remained abuzz in the evening as the students who had stepped out of the campus to protest in solidarity with Rohith Vemula, a Hyderabad University student who had committed suicide.
While activist Medha Patkar addressed the students in the evening, and VC met the deans of all schools to discuss future step of action.
The VC was requested to change the composition of the high-level enquiry committee probing the matter.
Registrar Bhupinder Zutshi said, “Revoking sedition charges are beyond the control of JNU”. He said it is a matter on which only police and courts can take action.
In the day, JNUSU General Secretary Rama Naga said, “We have nothing to hide. We disappeared only because of security reasons as we were concerned about what happened to Kanhaiya could have happened to us as well. When we saw normalcy returning on campus, we came back.
“We have nothing to hide. If police wants to question us they can, we are open to it but since we have not been issued summons there is no point of surrendering.”
On February 9, students including JNUSU President Kanhaiya who was arrested by police were a part of an event to commemorate hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where they allegedly shouted “anti-India” slogans.