In a relief to Kanhaiya Kumar booked under charges of sedition, a Sub-Divisional Magistrate probing the JNU row observed in its report that he didn’t find any evidence or came across any witness suggesting that the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union president had delivered seditious utterances or raised any anti-national slogans on the campus on February 9.
“I have submitted the report to the Delhi government late last (on Wednesday) night,” district magistrate, New Delhi, Sanjay Kumar, who conducted the inquiry, said.
“Umar Khalid, the main organiser and a member of JNU’s Democratic Students’ Union (DSU), has been known for his views on Kashmir’s self-determination and Afzal Guru. He had in the past organised many such programmes. After going through the footages given by the JNU security, which had filmed the incident, and various television channels and speaking with witnesses, it became clear that Khalid raised slogans such as ‘Kashmir ki janta sangharsh karo, hum tumahare saath hai’. JNU security staff, who claimed to have identified voices of Anirban Bhattacharya and Ashutosh Kumar, said they raised slogan ‘Afzal ki hatya nahi sahenge’,” the report observed.
The report found many outsiders of Kashmiri descent, most of them having their faces covered, were seen shouting pro-Afzal and anti-India slogans in videos.
“No witness or video available to me could support allegation against him,” Sanjay Kumar stated in the report.
But the official said that “anti-India slogans were indeed raised in the campus. There is no doubt about it”.
“Anti-national slogans were indeed raised on the campus of the JNU. The university administration has identified few faces who were clearly heard raising anti-India slogans. Whereabouts of them should be found out and their role must be investigated further,” the report stated.
The official said that seven videos were sent to Truth Labs, Hyderabad, of which three were found to be doctored. “In those doctored versions, video has been edited and voices added,” the official said.
The state government had ordered a magisterial probe into the matter on February 13.
On February 9, a cultural event was organised at JNU to commemorate the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
