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Delhi Police's Anti-Terror Special Cell Seizes Umar Khalid And Anirban Bhattacharya's Laptops

Delhi Police's Anti-Terror Special Cell Seizes Umar Khalid And Anirban Bhattacharya's Laptops
This photograph taken late on February 23, 2016 shows Indian student activist Umar Khalid (C) and Anirban Bhattacharya (L) walking through the campus of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on their way to surrendering to Indian authorities. Khalid and Bhattacharya are accused of sedition over a rally at which anti-India slogans were shouted. Students have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing nationalist government of misusing the British-era sedition law to stifle dissent. AFP PHOTO / AFP / STRDEL (Photo credit should read STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)
STRDEL via Getty Images
This photograph taken late on February 23, 2016 shows Indian student activist Umar Khalid (C) and Anirban Bhattacharya (L) walking through the campus of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on their way to surrendering to Indian authorities. Khalid and Bhattacharya are accused of sedition over a rally at which anti-India slogans were shouted. Students have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing nationalist government of misusing the British-era sedition law to stifle dissent. AFP PHOTO / AFP / STRDEL (Photo credit should read STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images)

While JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar has been let off on bail, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya's trials seem to have just begun. According to a report on The Indian Express, a team from Delhi Police's Special Cell visited the campus and seized the JNU doctoral students' laptops.

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police is an elite unit who are entrusted with probing cases of terror.

In 2015, the Special Cell ran into a controversy following the alleged encounter of a man called Manoj Vashisth. An Indian Express profile of the cell says, "It can investigate cases of organised crime, and those involving hardened criminals. But its primary focus is on terror-related cases. Only when there are not enough terror-related inputs, is it allowed to take up other kinds of cases."

There are several allegations of fake encounters against the team.

On February 28, DCP (South) Prem Nath had requested former Delhi Police chief BS Bassi to transfer the case to the Special Cell.

Khalid and Bhattacharya were arrested on 9 February, after they surrendered. "According to sources, police may again seek their custody to question them further. In the initial round of questioning, the names of some Kashmiri youth had come up, said sources. They added that though a team from the south district police had visited Kashmir, they had failed to find these men," IE reports.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.