Delhi police chief B.S. Bassi on Monday justified the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and claimed that he had raised anti-national slogans during the controversial event in the campus.
Delhi police chief B.S. Bassi on Monday justified the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and claimed that he had raised anti-national slogans during the controversial event in the campus. However, he had to admit that the police had found “no evidence linking the Lashkar-e-Tayabba” to the incident.
After meeting Union home minister Rajnath Singh, Mr Bassi said Mr Kumar had delivered a speech at the event and participated in an unlawful assembly where anti-India slogans had allegedly been raised. The top cop said it was because of his involvement and the evidence collected so far that Mr Kumar was arrested for sedition.
Mr Bassi claimed the congregation, organised against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, was anti-national and unlawful. “Yes, he raised anti-national slogans,” the police chief said when pressed on the issue. Mr Bassi said that the speech Mr Kumar delivered at the event was highly-objectionable.
When asked about alleged links between Kashmiri militants and the JNU students suspected to be involved in the event, Mr Bassi said, “Kanhaiya (Kumar)’s interrogation will be analysed for terror links and the police is looking for some other students who all absconded after the incident, but will soon be arrested.”
He, however, said the police has found “no evidence linking” the LeT to the JNU incident so far. “As and when it comes, it will shared with the home ministry,” he said. During Mr Kumar’s questioning, investigators gathered crucial information that will be verified and processed, he added. Responding to questions about video footage purportedly showing some students, allegedly members of the ABVP, shouting anti-India slogans in the same event, Mr Bassi said, “As far as I am informed, ABVP students were protesting against the conduct of the particular event. However, if anything comes up against them, they will have to face legal action too.” Caught in a controversy over LeT founder Hafiz Saeed’s purported tweet that was pinned by the Delhi police in an alert over Twitter asking students not to get carried away by anti-India rhetoric, the commissioner said that a probe has been initiated. “Don’t go into whether the tweet is authentic or not. Go to the contents of the tweet. The content of the tweet was blasphem ous, which could incite violence, and that is the only reason why we issued an alert.” “It is inflammatory, it incites people against lawfully-established Government in India. I am surprised that people are more concerned about the (authenticity of the) tweet than its potential impact,” Mr Bassi said when asked whether the tweet was genuine or fake.
“Whether Hafiz Saeed posted the tweet himself, did it go through a proxy account or whether someone else did so by using his name, is a now a matter of investigation. A probe has been initiated into it,” Mr Bassi said, adding the police is monitoring several tweets made by the particular handle and other handles apparently related to that.
The Delhi police’s south district has formed a special team to track 13 other JNU students allegedly involved in anti-India sloganeering.
