Kanhaiya Kumar distances himself from Umar Khalid

NEW DELHI: Kanhaiya Kumar, according to police sources, has claimed that he did not know Umar Khalid or Anirban Bhattacharya, now in Delhi Police custody, personally but was aware of their political affiliations. He has allegedly claimed that he knew them only as fellow students and did not agree with their political ideology.
He has stuck to his claim that his role was limited to having intervened during a clash between two groups on February 9.

Now, police officials are looking at arresting at least four others whose role has been confirmed during interrogation and evidence collection. They may soon contact these students who are accused of being involved in the conspiracy.

Police sources also say that 20 other people have been found to be present at the February 9 event. Police said they would file proof on Saturday, including letters seeking permisssion, videos shot at the venue, and pamphlets distributed. They are still trying to identify eight outsiders at the event.

Police also claimed that the arrested JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were not cooperating in the investigations and changing their statements frequently. Their statements were contradictory when they and Kanhaiya were made to sit face to face.

The duo took a police team to an undisclosed location in south Delhi where they had been supposedly hiding during the time police had been looking for them. Earlier, they had said they had got to Ghaziabad and Jharkhand. During their cross-examination, Khalid and Anirban are said to have confessed that they had remained on the campus even after Kanhaiya was arrested and went into hiding only after threats of being lynched were conveyed to them.

They claimed that they first went to their friend's house in Munirka and then to Katwaria Sarai. The two have named at least four to five people who had helped them stay in hiding. Police say that they will slap sections related to harbouring of accused on the people who sheltered them.

Khalid, Anirban and Kanhaiya were questioned in two rounds. In the first, they were made to sit in different rooms and made to answer similar questions. Later, they were made to sit in one room before an inspector and asked to narrate their versions. Both were corroborated and evidence to nail the conflicting statements produced before them.

The two have maintained that the slogans were raised by outsiders. The police are also probing the role of some of the teachers after a students' body accused them of helping Umar and Anirban.