3 Policemen Were Present, But Kanhaiya Kumar Case Based On TV Footage

New Delhi: Hours after Kanhaiya Kumar was attacked while being taken by the police into a Delhi court, Police Chief BS Bassi told NDTV that he would not oppose bail for the 28-year-old student, whose arrest on sedition charges has been the top national headline for days.

Mr Bassi's comments come as the government and police have been challenged by the opposition to furnish evidence that Mr Kumar, 28, made anti-national remarks at a rally at the Jawaharlal Nehru University or JNU last week.  

Videos circulating online of Mr Kumar's speeches don't show him among a group that shouted slogans of "Long live Pakistan" and pledging the imminent disintegration of India.

But the police case or FIR, filed on February 11, two days after the JNU rally- bases the sedition charge -punishable by a maximum sentence of life imprisonment- on footage of the demonstration that was aired on Zee News. This provokes questions because the police had actually deputed three constables in civil clothes to attend the rally prompted by a message from JNU officials which said the event was designed to question the hanging of Afzal Guru three years ago for his role in the attack on Parliament in 2001.

The FIR states: "HC Rambir No. 2923/SD, CT Karmbir No. 1664/SD, CT Dharmbir No. 3846/SD were sent in civil dress to the Sabarmati Dhaba ( the location of the event) and were briefed accordingly."

Though the policemen watched the event first-hand, the FIR makes no reference to any observations by them about Mr Kumar.

Instead, the police complaint says that on February 11, Zee News was asked to submit its footage, the channel complied, and the police case was filed - which critics see as a rush job given the gravity of the charges.

None of the video clips available online present Mr Kumar chanting anti-national slogans. At the rally on February 9, he is seen amid a shouting match between Left students and the BJP-affiliated ABVP union.

Two videos filmed the next day, February 10, that are posted on social media show Mr Kumar giving speeches on the steps outside the JNU's administrative wing.

The first has become a widely-cited clip where he talks of how he respects the Constitution of India, but is against the Constitution "imposed by Nagpur" (the headquarters of the ruling party's ideological parent, the RSS). In the second, he is heard shouting for "Azadi" (freedom), standing next to Umar Khalid, the student who organised the Afzal Guru meeting. Upon review, Mr Kumar appears to be asking for Azadi from casteism and prejudice.

But these speeches are also not cited by the police as the basis of the sedition charge.

Two cellphone clips of the rally in which voices can be heard chanting "Pakistan Zindabad", and asking for "Bharat Ki Barbadi" (the destruction of India) are filmed in darkness. It is next to impossible to identify who specifically is raising those chants.

One relatively clear cellphone video shot in daylight show a group of men shouting some of the most hardcore slogans being chanted including "Bharat Tere Tukde Honge" (India, you will be broken up).   The men who recited these, according to some people who were at the rally, are outsiders.

Shehla Rashid, the Vice President of the union headed by Mr Kumar, claims she has never heard such chants on campus, and made an attempt to stop these men, since it goes against the ideology of most Left unions. There is however no video evidence of this.  

It remains unclear though why men with such extreme views were  invited by the organisers to the JNU campus in the first place.

In the video, none of the six students charged with sedition (five are missing, Mr Kumar alone has been arrested)- or for that matter  the rest of the crowd - can be seen joining in. The students listed in the FIR, though not Mr Kumar, calling for independence for Kashmir; they also say "Har Ghar se Afzal Niklega" (an Afzal will be born in every house).