JNU sedition case: Court summons Kanhaiya, 9 others on March 15

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) A Delhi Court has taken cognisance of a charge sheet filed against former JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in the 2016 sedition caseChief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Pankaj Sharma has summoned them on March 15. The cognisance has been taken exactly one year after the Delhi government granted sanction to the Delhi Police to prosecute the accused.Besides Kanhaiya, others include former JNU students Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Kashmiri students Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Muneeb Hussain, Umar Gul, Rayeea Rassol, Bashir Bhat and Basharat Ali.On February 9, 2016, "anti-national" slogans were allegedly raised at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus during a programme called to protest against the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on his death anniversary.The 1,200-page charge sheet states that the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL) retrieved the SMS sent by Umar Khalid to Kanhaiya Kumar to arrive at Sabarmati Dhaba, JNU, as their permission (to hold the protest) had been cancelled by the University administration.The final pages of the charge sheet also confirm the presence of Kashmiri students during the protest and that they were in contact with Umar Khalid.

--IANS aka/dpb