New Delhi: A Delhi court has taken cognisance of a charge-sheet filed by the Delhi Police against former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in a 2016 sedition case and summoned them on 15 March.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Pankaj Sharma took cognisance of the final report almost a year after the Delhi Police received requisite sanctions to prosecute the accused in the case, reports said.
In its chargesheet, police claimed Kumar led a procession and supported ā along with others named as accused ā seditious slogans raised on the JNU campus on February 9, 2016, during an event to mark the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
The magistrate, while taking cognisance of the chargesheet against Kumar, Syed Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain Gattoo, Muneeb Hussain Gattoo, Umar Gul, Rayees Rasool, Basharat Ali and Khalid Bashir Bhatt, said, “The sanction to prosecute accused persons has already been filed by the Home Department, GNCT [Delhi government], dated February 27, 2020. After careful perusal of the chargesheet and consideration of the material, all the accused persons are summoned to face trial and they have been summoned through investigation officer for 15 March, 2021.”