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Probe Shows Kanhaiya Kumar Did Not Raise Anti-India Slogans In JNU

The police haven't been able to prove sedition charges against the student leader.
Adnan Abidi / Reuters

A year after JNU was in the news over allegations of raising anti-India slogans, latest reports on the issue suggest that the probe in the sedition case against Kanhaiya Kumar, who was the focus of the controversy, has revealed that he, in fact, did not raise any anti-national slogans.

An exclusive report by India Today says that "highly placed sources" have said that while so called anti-national were raised in JNU in February last year, Kumar's voice samples have tested negative.

Kumar, who was then president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student's Union, was arrested on charges of sedition along with Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. They had also faced disciplinary action.

Some students were suspended. Many faced fines of Rs 20,000 each and Kumar had faced a fine of Rs 10,000.

However, he had always maintained that he was innocent.

"Event of last February can't be used by the ruling party at their convenience to fool people and defame educational institutions."

The Times of India reports that the chargesheet says that nine outsiders had been identified and all of them are Kashmiri, it also says professors were involved in raising slogans and that while Kumar did not raise such slogans, he did nothing to stop others.

While then Delhi Police commissioner B.S. Bassi had alleged that there was enough evidence to prove that Kumar had raised anti-national slogans, a Delhi government-appointed magisterial probe had given a clean chit to Kumar.

Kumar told India Today, on their finding, "Let court decide who is anti national and who should be punished... but this case and event of last February can't be used by the ruling party at their convenience to fool people and defame educational institutions."

Sources have told The Times of India that now the police has left it for the court to decide if a chargesheet should be filed against him.

This good news for Kumar comes at a time when Ramjas College saw incidents very similar to what happened in JNU last year. ABVP members and Delhi police beat up students, professors and even journalists at a protest march last week near the Maurice Nagar police station. The protest was after ABVP forced the college to cancel an event where Umar Khalid was invited.

The incident has raised questions and caused much debate on freedom of speech in the country and persecution of students and professors who are known to be from liberal schools of thought.

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