JNU row: 3 TV channels face cases for ‘fixed’ videos

Man who put a price on Kanhaiya’s head arrested

Delhi’s AAP government has decided to file criminal cases against three TV news channels on the basis of a magisterial probe that concluded they aired allegedly doctored videos of a controversial event at Jawaharlal Nehru University on February 9 involving its students’ union president. On Monday, meanwhile, the Delhi police arrested Adarsh Sharma, who claims to be president of the “Purvanchal Sena” over the case registered for putting up posters in different areas announcing a Rs 11 lakh “reward” for anyone who shoots dead JNUSU chief Kanhaiya Kumar. Mr Sharma was questioned at a police station over the posters stuck on a wall near the Press Club of India and bus stops and Metro stations in New Delhi district. The police also registered a case of defacement of property in connection with the matter and questioned one person, who was allegedly involved in sticking the posters on Friday-Saturday night.

A source in the AAP government said the administration’s legal team had been ordered to initiate action against three television channels whose names were not mentioned in the report by New Delhi district magistrate Sanjay Kumar. He said a lower court will be approached under Section 200 CrPC, under which a magistrate takes cognisance of an offence on receiving a complaint.

Earlier Monday, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and JD(U) leader K.C. Tyagi met chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and sought action against the TV channels that allegedly ran “doctored” videos on the JNU controversy. The magisterial probe ordered by the Delhi government had found that out of seven videos sent to a Hydrabad-based forensic lab, three of them had been “edited”. Of the three edited videos, two were reportedly doctored, including one clipping of a news channel. Going by the Hyderabad lab’s report, two videos had been “manipulated” so that the voices of persons who were not present in the clippings were added. In the manipulated clips, videos had been edited and voices have been added, the lab report had stated.

The magisterial probe didn’t find any evidence of JNUSU chief Kanhaiya Kumar raising any “anti-India” slogans at the controversial event in the university. The JNUSU chief was charged with sedition following allegations that “anti-national” slogans were raised at the event to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Kashmiri separatist leader Maqbool Bhat.

Kanhaiya Kumar was, however, freed on bail last week, while two other JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya are still lodged in Tihar Jail over the sedition case.

The probe report said that “anti-national” slogans were raised on the campus and the JNU administration had already identified a “few faces” who were “clearly” heard raising them. The probe panel said the whereabouts of the people who had covered their faces and who were raising slogans must be found and their role properly investigated.