On Saturday, a Delhi court rapped the Delhi Police for disregarding the rules while filing a chargesheet against former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case without approval of the legal department.
“You don’t have approval from legal department, why did you file chargesheet without approval?” the court said according to ANI. Delhi Police told the court that it will get approval in 10 days.
On January 14, the Delhi Police charged Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others, including Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, with sedition, three years after they allegedly raised “anti-India” slogans at an event in the university.
The police submitted a 1,200-page charge sheet in the Patiala House court over the JNU event that was held on February 9, 2016 to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
Kumar said that the chargesheet was politically motivated given the filing of its timing. The chargesheet also drew fire from the Congress with Kapil Sibal accusing the government of using the sedition law to muzzle dissent in the country.