JNUSU prez Kanhaiya Kumar sent back to Tihar jail

JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar was today sent back to Tihar jail by a Delhi Court on completion of a day's police remand which was sought to interrogate him with two other students of the varsity, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, all arrested in a sedition case.
Kumar was sent back to judicial remand, which will end on March 2, after the police told the court that they did not need his further custody, said Kumar's counsel.
The court had yesterday sent Kumar to one day police custody after the prosecution said that he was needed to be confronted with Khalid and Anirban in view of discrepancies in their statements regarding the controversial JNU event.

All three of them were today interrogated together for the first time at a south Delhi police station. They were subjected to two rounds of questioning, with Kumar being confronted with the two separately in the first round and together in the second, a police source said.
Around 4.20 PM, Kumar left the premises of the R K Puram police station for Tihar, the source said, adding that police is likely to seek further remand of Khalid and Anirban, whose police custody ends tomorrow.
The police source claimed that Kanhaiya has so far maintained that on February 9, he came out of his room only when he got to know about a possible confrontation between two groups over the event inside the campus and has dissociated himself with the event.

While Khalid has so far denied having indulged in any anti-national sloganeering, Anirban challenged claims that the slogans mentioned by the police were anti-national in nature.

The police also showed them raw footage of the video of the February 9 event to ascertain identities of others involved in it, especially whom the police had earlier termed as "foreign elements".
In the statement attached with the FIR, police had identified Umar and Anirban as the "main organisers" and later in the court, the investigators mentioned about the presence of "foreign elements" (outsiders) in the event.
While Kumar was arrested on February 12 and sent to judicial custody five days later, Khalid and Anirban surrendered before the police on Monday, a day after they resurfaced at the varsity's campus.

During the day's hearing, advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who
appeared for the editor, said that the present complaint was in the name of Government of NCT of Delhi and it was yet to be decided whether the Chief Minister or the Lieutenant Governor represents it.
He claimed that the complaint was filed for political purpose.
"The same matter is being investigated by Delhi Police in the main FIR in the sedition case. Therefore, the proceeding in the present complaint should be stayed," the counsel said adding that a police report should be called in this matter.
He also claimed that this complaint was filed by the Delhi government to benefit Kanhaiya Kumar, an accused in the JNU sedition case.

However, senior advocate Hariharan submitted that the subject matter in this case is entirely different from the one in the first FIR filed in JNU sedition case.
"On February 9, there was a live telecast from the JNU campus. This case is not whether that video was doctored. Subsequently, something was uploaded on news channel's website which was edited and showed that a student shouting slogans like 'Pakistan zindabad' and angered the people across the country. The present complaint is based on the basis of that video which was edited," he said.
He further claimed that the editor has no locus as he has not yet been summoned in case by the court.

The government's complaint has said these programmes were also uploaded on the websites of these channels on 'YouTube'.
It said that a CD of the footage was send to forensic science laboratory and the experts have opined that all these bubbles were insertions and tapes were tampered with.
The plea has sought prosecution of the three channels, their editors and anchors for the alleged offences under various sections including 415 (cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of IPC and provisions of the Information and Technology Act.

The Delhi government sought examination of its complaint under Section 200 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It has made 12 respondents as parties in the matter, including three news channels, their editors-in-chief, directors and anchors.
The plea, which was filed through SDM of Vasant Vihar Sunil Dutt Sharma, also annexed list of witnesses which they sought to examine in support of the complaint.