Jawaharlal Nehru University: ‘sedition’ case, 2016
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2016
The Times of India, Jun 12 2016
Once bitten, cops decide to tread with caution
The raw video footage of the controversial Afzal Guru event on February 9 at JNU, based on which a sedition case was registered against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, has been found to be “genuine, untampered with and authentic“ by the CBI forensic lab. Police earlier clarified the FIR was registered on the basis of this raw footage obtained from a TV channel on a CD, and not on the basis of the clippings which were subsequently telecast. Hence, police sources said, the case of sedition against the accused has been established and more reports are not required.The doctored videos, if any, have no bearing on this FIR, they said. The report was handed over to Delhi Police on June 8. Cops say 19 people have been identified from the footage, of which Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban were earlier arrested. Cops are considering if they can arrest the rest. Among the rest are many JNU students and some people of Kashmiri origin. Police will, however, tread with caution.
The raw footage had been obtained from a stringer of Zee News after an investigation was initiated by Delhi Police's special cell. It was sent to the CBI's forensic lab in New Delhi along with the camera, memory card, a CD containing the clips, wires and other equipment that were used by the stringer.
Police officers say the video, along with a dozen others, was sent to the CFSL lab to check its authenticity as part of the investigation.
Special commissioner of police (special cell) Arvind Deep said the report will be used in the investigation. Be sides Umar and Kanhaiya, the video shows a bald masked youth and a woman raising slogans while there is an argument between JNU security personnel and students. The police will ask the JNU administration to identify them as well.
Delhi Police had earlier sent four video clips of the event to the CFSL in Gandhinagar which had reported in May that they were genuine.However, an investigation done by the Delhi government into a set of seven video clippings of the controversial event sent to the Hyderabad-based Truth Labs had found two clips to have been manipulated while the others were genuine .
In the FIR, the police had claimed that in the video, a group of students, led by Umar, are seen raising antiIndia slogans, 21 of which were mentioned in an interim report filed in the case a few days later.
Kanhaiya, Umar and Anirban were arrested in February and later granted bail in the case, which is now being probed by the special cell.
