Delhi Police have failed to procure prosecution sanction against former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the 2016 JNU sedition case. Police informed that the trial court that the sanction to prosecute, which is pending with the Delhi government, was expected in a few days.
The court directed the Investigating Officer to ask the government to expedite the sanction decision. It also said that the authorities can not sit on files for an indefinite period. The court gave Delhi Police time till February 28 to procure sanctions to prosecute Kumar and others.
On January 19, the court had rapped the Delhi Police asking why had they filed a chargesheet without taking approval from the legal department. “You don’t have approval from legal department, why did you file chargesheet without approval?”, asked the court. The court had then granted time till today to procure the sanction.
The Delhi police’ chargesheet filed against Kumar and others, claimed that he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the university campus on February 9, 2016, at an event to commemorate the hanging of Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru. Police also charged former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event.