The Delhi police has beefed up the security of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and his fellow student Umar Khalid following the recovery of a letter threatening to behead the two and a gun in a bus operating between ISBT and the varsity’s campus. Jawaharlal Nehru University students, who have been agitating ever since they were arrested in a sedition case over an event, demanded that the JNU administration must lodge a police complaint against various individuals who have been issuing threats to Mr Kumar and others.
A country-made pistol and a threat letter against Mr Kumar, purportedly written by a man who had earlier threatened the student leader on Facebook, were recovered from a bus operating between Kashmere Gate ISBT and the campus on Thursday evening, a senior police official said. The driver of the bus spotted an unclaimed bag and raised an alarm. He also registered a complaint at a police station in New Delhi district. “The security provisions have been enhanced,” the official said. The police is trying to ascertain identity of the bag’s owner and several persons have been questioned. With the gun, there was also a letter which said that Mr Kumar and Mr Khalid will be decapitated.
The letter was purportedly written by a person who had threatened Mr Kumar on Facebook earlier, saying that men with weapons are already present inside the campus, ready to kill him any moment. Mr Kumar doesn’t get any security cover inside the campus, but the university authorities have clearly been instructed to inform the Vasant Kunj (North) police station every time he leaves the campus and security is provided accordingly. Agitated over the alleged inaction of the JNU administration over the issue, the JNU Students’ Union demanded that the matter of security be raised by the vice-chancellor with the police. “I have repeatedly alerted the JNU administration to these threats. But there’s no positive response,” JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora said.
