The Delhi High Court is likely to resume tomorrow hearing on a bail plea of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case for allegedly raising anti-India slogans in the university campus.
Justice Pratibha Rani, who had on February 24 deferred the hearing till February 29 after Delhi police informed the bench that it will seek his further custodial interrogation, will resume the hearing tomorrow.
The hearing assumes significance as the police is likely to apprise the bench about the ongoing investigation during which it had taken Kanhaiya to one day custody to confront him with two other JNU students and arrested accused -- Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya.
Umar and Anirban had surrendered before police late on February 23 night. Both the accused are in police custody till February 29.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Kanhaiya, had earlier contended that as per the status report filed by Delhi Police there was no evidence of any anti-India slogans being raised by his client.
Kanhaiya, who was arrested on February 12, was in police custody till February 17 and was later remanded in judicial custody till March 2 amid violence at the court premises during the remand proceedings.
He was taken to one-day police custody on February 25 and was thereafter remanded back in judicial custody for two weeks on February 26.
In its status report filed before the high court, police had alleged Kanhaiya had not only participated in the event in JNU campus on February 9 where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised but had "actually organised" the programme.
It had claimed that besides Kanhaiya and other accused, some "foreign elements" were also present during the event and they had covered their faces to hide their identity.
"The investigation agency is looking for linkage between the petitioner (Kanhaiya), his co-accused and the said foreign elements who were hiding their identity by covering their faces," the police had said while opposing his bail plea.
The court was hearing a habeus corpus plea filed by the
student's mother 45-year old Fatima Nafees, who was in court today and was in tears during the hearing. She has sought directions to the authorities to trace her 27-year-old son who was pursuing MSc in Biotechnology from JNU.
During the hearing, the bench said it did not want to tell the police what to do but it can easily "shadow" some of the persons involved in the matter to know what was going on and to "fearlessly" tell the court what it has found out.
The court was also not pleased with the "attitude" of the JNU Vice Chancellor for not assigning anyone in the matter despite being served a copy of the petition.
"He does not think it is an important matter? This is not a good attitude," it said and directed JNU to file a response to the woman's plea by the next date of hearing.
The court also asked the varsity to reconsider Najeeb's expulsion from the hostel, if not already done so, and to advertise in newspapers that they will reconsider his punishment once he returns.
It asked Najeeb's mother to issue a statement asking him to return and directed the management and students of JNU to assist and cooperate with the police to trace him.
During arguments, the police said its Crime Branch was exploring all angles, including that Najeeb's disappearance had something to do with his "illness of mental depression" for which he was under medication since 2012. It was also of the view that he was hiding as he was probably ashamed of being expelled from the hostel.
Senior advocate Colin Gonzalves, appearing for Fatima, argued that he was "disappointed" by the manner of probe as the agency was not exploring the possibility of Najeeb being abducted as he was allegedly threatened by the ABVP members.
The court said someone getting beaten up in a college hostel was "not unusual", but no one disappears over it.
It also took note of the steps taken by the police, like uploading his details to the Zonal Integrated Police network, putting up notices across the city and issuing advertisements in newspapers, apart from enhancing the reward from Rs 50,000 to Rs five lakh for information leading to his recovery.
Najeeb's mother, in her petition filed through advocate Ali Qambar Zaidi, sought the setting up of a "court appointed Special Investigation Team of impartial officers of proven integrity from outside the state of Delhi" to take over the entire investigation from Crime Branch of Delhi Police.
She has also alleged that her son was beaten up by members of ABVP "which is affiliated to the RSS and therefore, closely connected with the BJP which is the party in power at the Centre and since the Delhi Police comes under the control of the Central Government, it is not likely that any progress will be made in the investigation".
