JNU Sedition Case : Delhi Govt Grants Sanction To Prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar And 2 Others

In a significant development, the Delhi Government on Friday night granted sanction to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar and two others in a case of alleged sedition for raising anti-national slogans during a protest march in JNU during February 2016.

The Delhi police had submitted chargesheet in the case in January 2019, nearly three years after the alleged incidents. Since then, the case was being adjourned in the trial court awaiting sanction from the Delhi Government.

The then student leaders Umer Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya are the other two accused in the case.

As per Section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, prosecution for the offence of sedition under Section 124A in Chapter VI of the Indian Penal Code cannot be carried forward without the sanction of the State Government.

On February 19, ACMM Purshottam Pathak at Patiala House Court had directed the Delhi police to send reminders to the Delhi Government on the pending request for sanction.

The accused have been charged with offences under sections 124A (sedition), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 465 (punishment for forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 143 (punishment for being a member of an unlawful assembly), 149 (being a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The case was registered on February 11, 2016 under sections 124A and 120B of the IPC against unidentified persons at the Vasant Kunj (North) police station, following complaints from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Maheish Girri and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)