High Court to hear plea seeking arrest of 5 Jawaharlal Nehru University students

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today agreed to give an urgent hearing to a plea seeking immediate arrest of the five JNU students accused of raising anti-India slogans.

The petition, which will be heard today, was filed before a bench of justices B D Ahmed and R K Gauba and it also sought a direction to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to allow Delhi Police to enter its premises to arrest the five students- Umar Khalid, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga and Anirban Bhattacharya.

"Direct respondent 4 (JNU) to permit respondent 3 (Delhi Police Commissioner) to enter premises of Respondent 4 and to arrest the respondents 5 to 10 (JNU students) and other accused person connected with the said case," the plea said.

The petition mentioned through senior advocate Adish C Aggarwala and advocate V K Anand also sought action against the faculty members of the University for allegedly trying to "obstruct the process of administration of criminal justice system and assisting for violation of law of lands."

Citing media reports, the petition said that on February 21 the five students wanted in the case resurfaced in JNU at around 8 PM, adding that yesterday the Vice Chancellor had refused to give permission to Delhi Police to enter the university campus to arrest the students.

"Hence it is crystal clear from the above mentioned facts that the respondents have no respect for the law of the land and taking the country to ransom by playing dirty politics," it said.

It also sought direction to the Central and Delhi government, Delhi Police and JNU to file status report of the entire incident till date.