Court to consider chargesheet in JNU sedition case on Jan 19

New Delhi: A court here on Tuesday set January 19 for considering a chargesheet filed against former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in a sedition case after some students shouted "anti-national slogans" in February 2016.

The hearing was adjourned because Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat, who was scheduled to hear the matter, was on leave on Tuesday.

The Delhi Police on Monday filed the chargesheet naming former JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven Kashmiri students as accused in the case.

The charges were slapped under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with sedition, voluntarily causing hurt, forgery, using as genuine a forged document, punishment for unlawful assembly, unlawful assembly with common object, rioting and criminal conspiracy.

The case involves an event organised on the JNU campus in February 2016 against the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

Both Kumar and Khalid have questioned the filing of the chargesheet, saying it was "politically motivated" and a "diversionary ploy" by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.