Jail or bail for Kanhaiya Kumar; Delhi High Court to decide tomorrow

NEW DELHI: JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar's fate will be decided tomorrow by the Delhi High Court which is likely to pronounce its order on his bail plea in the sedition case.

Justice Pratibha Rani had yesterday reserved the order after over three hours of hearing on the bail plea of Kanhaiya who is accused of raising anti-India slogans inside JNU campus during an event organised on February 9.

During the hearing, while Kanhaiya's counsel had argued that the student leader had never raised any slogans against the nation, Delhi Police had maintained that there was evidence that he and others were shouting anti-India slogans and were holding Afzal Guru's posters.

Police had claimed that Kanhaiya was "not cooperating" in the probe and even came out with "contradictory" statements in joint interrogation by Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Delhi Police.

The defence lawyers including senior advocate Kapil Sibal had countered the allegations saying there were "some outsiders with covered faces who raised anti-India slogans and Kanhaiya was seen in CCTV footage asking them for their identity cards."

The bench had also asked tough questions to the police on slapping sedition charge on the accused and asked it to show evidence against him of his "active role" in raising anti- India slogans.

Kanhaiya had also distanced himself from Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, the two other accused arrested in the case.

During the hearing, the Delhi government's counsel had urged the court to grant bail to Kanhaiya, who is currently in Tihar Jail under judicial custody.

He was arrested on February 12 in the case which was registered under sections 124 A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

According to the police, a group of students had on February 9 held an event in the campus and allegedly shouted slogans against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Guru.