JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, facing charges of sedition as well as a lookout notice issued by the Delhi Police, moved the Delhi High Court on Tuesday seeking their protection before they surrender in the case, in order to prevent any untoward incident.
The High Court will hear the petitions of the students along with the plea of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday.
Five students, including Umar and Anirban, accused of sedition in connection with an event organised in JNU against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, had returned to the university on Sunday night after remaining untraceable for several days.
The move comes on a day when hundreds of students took out a march demanding justice for Hyderabad University research scholar Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar.
Live updates:
6:23 pm: Delhi Police police will not “shy away” in using its options if the five JNU students who resurfaced in the campus fail to cooperate with the investigators, says Commissioner B.S. Bassi. >Read more.
5.50 pm: Supreme Court agrees to consider a plea seeking contempt action against three lawyers who allegedly assaulted JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. >Read more
5.06 pm: Rohith Vemula's mother releases a book on him at Jantar Mantar.
5.03 pm: “Nation” is a daily plebiscite. We condemn the attack on Prof. Vivek Kumar: Shehla Rashid, JNUSU vice-president.
5 pm: No stay on arrest of JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. >Read more
4.48 pm: Delhi HC asks their lawyers about their surrender. HC asks the two to surrender at a place of their choice, which is opposed by police.
4.53 pm: Real anti-nationals are those who are against pluralism: DUTA president Nandita Narayan at Jantar Mantar.
4.48 pm: Plea of JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya seeking protection to come up along with Kanhaiya Kumar case in Delhi HC on Wednesday.
4.40 pm: Dissent is not anti-nationalism. We must prepare for a revolution: S.Q.R. Ilyas at Jantar Mantar.
4.35 pm: I am missing Kanhaiya & Umar here. They wanted to be a part of this protest: S.Q.R. Ilyas, Umar Khalid's father.
4.34 pm: I support Rohith Act. Leave activities in universities to the the universities themselves: Arvind Kejriwal at Jantar Mantar.
4.32 pm: It started with FTII, then Hyderabad University, IIT and now JNU, says Arvind Kejriwal. Attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
4.31 pm: All goondas have certificates of nationalism. Good people like Kanhaiya, Aamir Khan are anti-nationals: Arvind Kejriwal
4.30 pm: Promise Rohith's mother and brother, won't let the movement die: Arvind Kejriwal.
4.20 pm: Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi makes a U-turn from his earlier stand of not opposing JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar’s bail plea in the High Court, saying it was due to “change in circumstances“. Mr. Bassi had earlier asserted that the police will not oppose Mr. Kumar’s bail, maintaining that a young man like him should be given another chance. However, the police chief on Tuesday justified his backtracking saying, “The circumstances when I had said so, those have totally changed.”
4 pm: Mounting a fresh attack, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has accused the Modi government and the RSS of crushing voices of dissent of college and university students across the country and pitched for a law to protect them from “discrimination” and “suppression“. >Read more
3 pm: In its latest report on the JNU row, Delhi Police has cited evidence collected by the varsity’s internal inquiry committee suggesting that eight students, including JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, allegedly indulged in raising unconstitutional slogans.
(Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal with Rohit Vemula’s mother and brother during a students rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty)
(CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat with Rohit Vemula's mother and brother during a students rally to Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty)
