Kanhaiya sent to jail; student groups intensify protests

JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested on sedition charges, was on Wednesday sent to judicial custody till March 2.

Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen gave the ruling after Delhi Police said it did not need the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) any more for interrogation.

Policemen take away NSUI activists demonstrating in support of JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar in New Delhi (Photo: IANS)

Defence counsel Vrinda Grover requested the court to provide adequate safety to Kanhaiya Kumar inside the jail, expressing apprehension about a threat to his life.

The court directed Delhi Police, who will escort him to the jail from the court, and the superintendent of the Tihar jail to ensure his safety.

The court has asked senior police officials and the jail superintendent to submit a report regarding security of Kanhaiya Kumar inside the jail premises by Thursday.

Kanhaiya Kumar, from the Leftist All India Students Federation (AISF), was arrested on February 12 on charges of raising anti-India slogans during a meeting on Kashmir in the campus.

Meanwhile, ten student organisations owing allegiance to different political parties pledged support to JNUSU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar.

They also demanded a judicial probe into the issue and vowed to take their struggle across all central universities in the country.

"We want a judicial probe into the whole issue, including what happened on the JNU campus on February 9 as we don't trust the central government agencies. We will take this movement to every central university and fight till the time we get justice,” All India Students Federation (AISF) general secretary Vishwajeet Kumar told the media here.

The other organisations which came out in support of the JNU students include the National Students Union of India (NSUI), All India Students Association (AISA), Students Federation of India (SFI), Student Front of Swaraj (SFS) and the student wings of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal-United.

“Representatives of these 10 student bodies will take out a protest march from Mandi House to parliament on Thursday and hold a public meeting on Saturday,” SFI's Vikram Singh said.

Representatives of various teachers and non-teaching staff unions are also likely to participate.

“We will also join the students of Hyderabad University who will hold a march on February 23 to parliament to seek justice for Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula,” Singh said.

“The government never gave us any opportunity to explain our side of the story. On the contrary, they are picking students from left organisations and framing them under false charges,” Vishwajeet said.

“We condemn the anti-national slogans raised on the JNU campus and believe that the guilty should be strongly punished. At the same time, we also need to save the JNU that is under attack from right-wing fascist forces who are dubbing anybody and everybody opposed to their ideology as anti-national and anti-India,” the student leader added. - IANS