Panel upholds punishment for Umar Khalid,Kanhaiya Kumar

The JNU panel had in 2016 recommended rustication of Khalid and two other students and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Kumar

An enquiry committee of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has upheld the rustication of Umer Khalid in connection with a controversial event on the campus where anti-national slogans were purportedly raised on February 9, 2016.

The panel also upheld the imposition of a fine of Rs 10,000 the then JNU Student Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar in connection with the matter.

The JNUSU condemned the recommendations of the high-level committee, calling it “a political conspiracy” by the JNU administration.

The students union also vowed to take the battle with the JNU administration forward, appealing to the students' community and “democracy-loving citizens of the nation” to raise their voice against “the witch-hunting of students of JNU.”

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar endorsed the enquiry panel's recommendation. "It's a court's decision. University has to implement it," he told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.

All legal-political remedies will be taken up to overturn the JNU order against Umer, Kanhaiya and others, the JNUSU said in a statement.

JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar had ordered for rustication of Khalid, a research scholar and a student union activist, and others as well as the imposition of fines on Kanhaiya and others, acting on the recommendation of a high-level committee which had probed the February 9 incident and held them “guilty of gross indiscipline.”

“The punishments recommended by the high-level enquiry committee (HLEC) have been set aside by the court twice earlier. The recent HLEC punishments are nothing but a political conspiracy by the JNU admin, flouting all norms of conducting a free and fair inquiry,” the JNUSU said.

Delhi police had booked Khalid, Kanhaiya others in connection with the case in 2016, slapping sedition charge against them under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“The February 9, 2016 incident was the BJP-RSS's main script against the JNU and the JNU students. Till today, even after 2 years, the Delhi police hasn't been able to file a charge sheet against the JNU students,” the JNUSU added.