JNU case: mob hits journalists, students at court

New Delhi: A mob of men in lawyers’ coats assaulted students, journalists and bystanders at the Patiala House district court on Monday, just before a sedition case against Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar was to be heard.

Delhi police did not present Kumar before the judge due to the unrest. However, the judge remanded him to police custody for two more days.

Men who identified themselves as lawyers asked journalists to leave the courtroom and chased people who they believed to be supporters of JNUSU. Outside the court room, they raised slogans against “anti-national elements” and asked people to leave the court premises. “Either you make them leave or we will,” an unidentified lawyer was seen warning police personnel present in the court complex.

The assault took place for over three hours in spite of a heavy police presence, with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley also appearing in court, barely ten feet away from the scene of violence, for a hearing in his criminal defamation case against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

O.P. Sharma, a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from east Delhi, who was in court for the defamation hearing, allegedly roughed up Ameeque Jamai, a Communist Party of India member, outside the court premises.

Sashi Kumar, chairperson of the Asian College of Journalism, blamed the “hyper-national” sentiment of those involved for the attack on journalists.

“It is an orchestrated campaign to discredit an institution like JNU and anyone who doesn’t subscribe to that is being targeted,” he said.

At least six journalists were reportedly physically attacked by the mob, according to a complaint lodged by reporters in Tilak Marg police station. The mobile phones of several journalists were allegedly forcibly taken away from them by the mob after they tried to record the scenes of violence.

At around 5 pm, police began to drive students, teachers and reporters out of the court complex. R.K. Wadhwa, president of the New Delhi Bar Association, said over the telephone that he has received conflicting versions of the incident in court. “I have been told that JNU students attacked lawyers first. I have to verify all claims before deciding on an appropriate course of action,” he said.

Kumar was to be presented before metropolitan magistrate Lovleen after he was arrested on 12 February in connection with a case of alleged sedition and criminal conspiracy over the holding of an event at JNU against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. On 11 February, BJP MP Maheish Girri and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the BJP’s student wing, filed a complaint against unknown persons under Section of 124 A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

Meanwhile, a plea was filed in the Delhi high court by Ranjana Agnihotri seeking a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe in the sedition case against Kumar, according to Press Trust of India news agency.

PTI contributed to this story.