Court questions Delhi Police for filing JNU charge sheet without necessary sanction

A court here on Saturday asked the city police why has it filed a charge sheet against former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in a sedition case without receiving the sanction from the competent authority. "Why did you file (the charge sheet) without approval? You don't have a legal department," Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat asked the Delhi Police. The police assured the court that it will procure the required sanctions within 10 days. The court listed the matter for further hearing on February 6.

The Delhi Police on January 14 filed acharge-sheet naming former JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, and seven Kashmiri students as accused in the case. The charges were slapped under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with sedition, voluntarily causing hurt, forgery, using as genuine a forged document, punishment for unlawful assembly, unlawful assembly with a common object, rioting, and criminal conspiracy. The case involves an event organized on the JNU campus in February 2016 against the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru. Both Kumar and Khalid have questioned filing of the charge sheet, saying it was "politically motivated" and a "diversionary ploy" by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.