The interrogation of two JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya has thrown more light on the controversial anti-India event held on the campus on February 9.
Sources have revealed that the two students are cooperating. Umar has accepted that he spoke in favour of Afzal Guru. He also said his area of field work is Jharkhand during his research in MPhil and had visited that State. He also told police that he was not absconding for 10 days but was lying low in his room at Tapti Hostel on the campus.
At South Campus police station in the national Capital, the duo who surrendered on Tuesday night are being grilled about their role in organising the event praising hanged Parliament attack convict terrorist Afzal Guru as a martyr.
Police are trying to piece together the sequence of the “unlawful incident” on the campus and role of their fellow students Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar, Anant Prakash, Banojyotsna lahiri, who is a guest faculty
lecturer of Ambedkar University, Reyaz-ul-Haq and his wife Rubina Saifi, Komal Bharat Mohite, Ashwati, Anwesha, Anjali Jha, Bhawana Bedi and Samar.
The duo, allegedly involved in anti-India sloganeering as per the videos and claims of police, were also asked about their family and educational background apart from their demands to free Kashmir.
Also, police are probing the angle of foreign elements and funding of the event.
Name of one Riyaz — who allegedly arranged the sound system and was given the task of uploading pictures of the event on the social media — who is yet to surrender, also figured during the questioning.
Another name that appeared during the questioning was that of one Banjyotsana lahiri, who was allegedly a co-organiser of the event. Both Umar and Anirban, however, claimed that anti-India slogan, if made, were by outsiders and not JNU students. Police confronted them with 28 inflammatory slogans.
Umar told police that he conceived the idea of the event and was the applicant of the event.
Umar, who has been pursuing his PhD from the School of Social Science in JNU and had done his Master’s in History and MPhil from the same varsity, told police that he never visited Jammu and Kashmir but he was “against the hanging of Afzal Guru and Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts (AFSPA)”.
On other hand, Anirban told police that he had prepared the material likes posters and pamphlets for the event and also distributed the propaganda materials among students and pasted on the walls of the campus.
Both were separately grilled. Interestingly, the duo claimed that they were only responsible for the event and not their friends and fellow students.
But police loaded with pictures and videos asked them to identify the people present during the unlawful gathering inside the campus.
They were also asked about the whereabouts of other students involved in the anti-national sloganeering.
Also, police asked them to identify the people who came from other universities to attend the function.
The police also asked about funding of their sources to organise event every year.
In the meantime, the Delhi Police are waiting for three more students to surrender.
A status report on the questioning of the students is slated to be given to Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi and the Ministry of Home Affairs.