Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in February in a sedition case over an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. (File photo)
Delhi Police has beefed up the security of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid following the recovery of a letter threatening to behead the two and a gun in a bus operating between an ISBT and the varsity's campus.
The university students who have been agitating ever since they were arrested in a sedition case over an event on campus, meanwhile, demanded that the JNU administration lodge a police complaint against various individuals who have been issuing threats to Mr Kumar and others.
A country-made pistol and a threat letter against Mr Kumar, purportedly written by a man who had earlier threatened the student leader over Facebook, were recovered from a bus operating between Kashmere Gate ISBT and the university campus yesterday evening, a senior police official said today.
It was the driver of the bus who spotted an unclaimed bag and raised an alarm. He also registered a complaint at a police station in New Delhi district.
"The security provisions have been enhanced in view of the threat perception," the official said.
Police is trying to ascertain identity of the bag's owner and several persons have been questioned. With the gun, there was also a letter which said that Kanhaiya and Umar Khalid will be decapitated, he added.
The letter was purportedly written by a person who had threatened Mr Kumar over Facebook earlier saying that men with weapons are already present inside the campus, ready to kill him any moment, police said.
Mr Kumar doesn't get security cover inside the campus but the university authorities have clearly been instructed to inform Vasant Kunj (North) police station every time he leaves the campus and security is provided accordingly.
Agitated over the alleged inaction by JNU administration over the issue, JNU students union demanded that the matter of security be raised by the Vice Chancellor with the police.
"I have repeatedly alerted the JNU administration to these threats. But there's no positive response. We are disappointed by the silence of the administration and VC on this issue. Is the VC under pressure from the Modi government to not act against those issuing threats? Or, is the JNU administration being deliberately complacent?," JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid Shora said.
"We want the VC to raise the issue with police and lodge an FIR against those issuing threats. The sense of impunity which goons and murderers are perceiving under Modi government has to be ended. The sense that nothing will happen emboldens them," she added.
Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested in February in a sedition case over an event on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.