Cops claim JNU sedition event footage authentic; AAP says which footage are you talking about?

 The raw video footage of the controversial event of February 9 at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) — based on which a sedition case was registered against JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and two others — has been found to be “authentic” by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) forensic lab, Delhi Police claimed on Saturday.

However, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that there was no clarification as to which particular video the police were talking about or had mentioned in their report as several footages were found to be doctored. Several controversies had surrounded the authenticity of the footage as there were allegations of it being doctored. A magisterial inquiry had in fact found that the clips aired on several channels were indeed doctored. A former employee of the channel which submitted the raw footage to the police also alleged that the aired footage was doctored.

On Saturday, senior AAP leader and spokesperson Deepak Bajpai said: “Earlier in March at the time of the incident, the Delhi government had initiated legal action against those news channels who allegedly doctored the footages. But today (Saturday), we do not have any clue which footage has been actually found authentic by the Delhi Police. They may be right but there were several footages that were doctored and many were found authentic too.” He further stated that JNU should be asked about the authenticity of the doctored videos, not his party.

It is also important to mention here that the Delhi government had then claimed that the telecast of the allegedly doctored videos had led to breach of peace with mobs gathering outside JNU and large police teams had to be deployed at the university.

The police had sent the footage of the controversial February 9 event organised at Jawaharlal Nehru University — captured by a Hindi news channel — for forensic examination to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. 

“We received the report on June 8 which established the authenticity of the footage,” said a source in the Delhi Police Special Cell which had taken over the probe from the South District police. 

Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep confirmed receipt of the report but did not divulge the details.