JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and two other JNU students today approached a Delhi court seeking regular bail in a sedition case relating to alleged anti-India slogans being raised at the university campus in February.
Besides Kanhaiya, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who were also out on interim bail, moved the trial court for regular bail. Their pleas would come up for hearing tomorrow.
The move came after the Delhi High Court on August 17 had refused Kanhaiya's application for regular bail and asked him to approach a sessions court for the purpose.
He was granted interim bail by the high court on March 2 for six months which is scheduled to expire on September 1.
While granting interim bail to Khalid and Bhattacharya on March 18, the trial court had observed that the role attributed to Kanhaiya does not appear to be different from the allegations levelled against the two accused.
The court had granted the relief to the duo on furnishing of a personal bond in the sum of Rs 25,000 with one surety of the like amount, which was complied with by them following which they were ordered to be released till September 19.
It had also directed Umar and Anirban not to leave Delhi without permission during the period of interim bail and make themselves available before the investigating officer as and when required for the purpose of the probe.
The high court had earlier granted interim conditional bail for six months to Kanhaiya asking him not participate actively or passively in any activity which could be termed anti-national.
It had on August 11 declined the plea of two private individuals to cancel Kanhaiya's interim bail, saying nothing has been brought before it to show that the student leader had made any anti-national speech after his release.
Kanhaiya was arrested on February 12 on sedition charges in connection with an event on the campus on February 8 where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. Umar and Anirban were arrested later.
The complaint said these channels had reported about a
clash between students groups at JNU and showed footage of the incident.
The counsel for the complainant had said since the video was inaudible, the channels had shown a bubble on the screen with an alleged text "Pakistan Zindabad" and the anchor and reporter suggested that such anti-national slogans were being raised by JNU students which would not be tolerated by the country.
The complaint claimed that these programmes were also uploaded on the websites of these channels on 'YouTube', adding that a CD of the footage was sent to forensic science laboratory and the experts have opined that all these bubbles were insertions and the tapes were tampered with.
The complaint has sought the prosecution of the three channels, their editors and anchors for 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.
It has also sought examination of its complaint under Section 200 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and made 12 respondents as parties in the matter.
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.
