The five accused students, who resurfaced inside Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Sunday, said there is a clear “threat to their lives” outside the campus, but as there is no option left, they have faith in police and judiciary.
“A TV channel just exposed the people who attacked JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. They talked about throwing petrol bombs…what do we expect but it is clearly threatening. However, we continue to have faith in the system including police and judiciary. We have no other option,” Ashutosh former JNUSU president who is pursuing PhD, told The Pioneer.
He is one of the eight debarred students over the anti-India February 9 event held on the campus to hail Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where they allegedly “anti-national” slogans were raised.
He said after he with other three students, including Anirban Bhattacharya, Anant Prakash and Rama Naga, came back in open and met Umar Khalid, they discussed about “threat to their lives”.
“We discussed how mob had attacked Kanhaiya and feared mob lynching. We still know that it is vicious to be out of campus but we have sought help from the High Court,” he said. Students fear that they could also face the fate of Kanhaiya who was assaulted on the court premises in presence of heavy police force while being taken for hearing proceedings on February 17.
The five students had gone missing from the campus since February 12 while Kanhaiya was arrested form campus on the same day and charges of “sedition and criminal conspiracy” were slapped on him.
While Umar Khalid was branded as the mastermind by a section of the media, the teachers from his Centre for Historical Studies in JNU expressed “concern and worry” calling him a “bright” student.
While addressing the students on Sunday night, Khalid defended himself saying that “he was not a terrorist” but a victim of “media trial”.