JOIN US Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, two of the several Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students booked on charges of sedition, may have to face rustication.
Kanhaiya Kumar, president of the JNU students’ union who is also facing the same charges, may be let off with a fine, sources in the university who are privy to the development told DH.
The university is gearing-up to take a final call on the recommendations of a high-level enquiry committee which probed the February 9 event held on the campus. The university administration, however, refused to have any knowledge about such a move. “No official letter has been received by Kanhaiya so far from the high-level enquiry committee.
Hence, no official statement can be made by him (Kanhaiya) on this matter. Please bear with us till the official letter is received,” said an associate of the JNU students’ union president.
The 5-member probe penal, in its report submitted to the university on March 11, has observed that Umar and Anirban had organised an event in the memory of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in the campus which ran into a controversy with raising of anti-India slogans. Though the panel noted that the anti-India slogans were raised by a group of “masked outsiders”, it deplored Umar, Anirban and three other JNU students for allowing the group of “masked” outsiders to take over the programme.
“This act by the outsider group has brought disrepute to the entire JNU community. There was a deliberate attempt to mislead the administration about the real nature of the event. The facts reveal that permission process was circumvented. The organisers disobeyed the instructions from the administration about not holding the event. This amounts to a wilful defiance. This act of indiscipline could have led to a law and order situation,” the panel noted.
In its report, the probe panel observed that Kanhaiya and other students who attended the controversial event have committed “acts of indiscipline” and violated “certain norms” of the university. It also criticised all office bearers of the JNU Students’ Union, observing that none of them acted with “due responsibility”. ABVP leader Saurabh Sharma, who lodged a complaint against Kanhaiya and others with the police for holding “anti-national” event in the campus, is the joint secretary of the JNU students’ union.