A country-made pistol and a threat letter against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, purportedly written by a man who had earlier threatened the student leader over Facebook, were recovered from a bus operating between an ISBT and JNU campus following which Delhi Police is mulling enhancing his security.
Delhi Police decided to review their security after receiving an anonymous letter from an abandoned bag in a bus, which threatened to decapitate Kumar and Khalid’s head for spreading anti-national sentiments. The bag also contained a country made pistol.
The students are PhD scholars at Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Their arrests in February triggered angry student protests in different parts of the country; they were released on bail a few weeks later.
Last evening, the driver of a bus that runs between their university and Delhi’s main bus terminal, the ISBT, found a bag with a revolver, six cartridges, and a note signed by “Amit Jhonny” (a fake name, cops say) that threatened Mr. Kumar and Mr. Khalid will be decapitated.
The letter, signed by one Anil Jaani, spoke of rewards for whoever beheads Kumar and Khalid, who along with another PhD scholar Anirban Bhattacharya, were jailed for sedition following a massive uproar over an event held in JNU in memory of Parliament attacks convict Afzal Guru. They were released last month.
The police have registered cases under Arms Act and other sections with the Tilak Marg station and are investigating the matter. The university has also been alerted about the threat.
On Thursday, suspected Bajrang Dal activists had pelted stones and hurled a slipper at Kanhaiya Kumar in Nagpur but he escaped unhurt. Police later detained 10 men in connection with the attack.
Kanhaiya was in the Maharashtra town to address a function marking the 125th anniversary of BR Ambedkar whom he considers his idol, at the invite of Progressive Students Youth Action Committee.
Despite the X-level of security accorded to the student leader, Bajrang Dal activists were present to protest outside the Nagpur airport when he arrived and even when he went to the historic Deekshabhoomi to pay homage to Ambedkar.
The function itself was disrupted by loud slogan-shouting of “Kanhaiya Kumar Murdabad”, “Kanhaiya Triator, Go Away”, forcing police to bundle the protestors outside the auditorium. Later, when he was addressing the meeting and making strong criticism of the BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, an unidentified person hurled a shoe at Kumar, barely missing his target.
