Kanhaiya Kumar was attacked by lawyers at a lower court last week.
New Delhi:
The security of Jawaharlal Nehru University student's union president Kanhaiya Kumar has been increased at Delhi's Tihar Jail, reportedly after intelligence reports said he could be attacked inside the prison. His bail plea will be heard by the High Court on February 29.
Kanhaiya is among six JNU students who have been accused of sedition over a controversial February 9 event that marked the anniversary of the hanging of terrorist Afzal Guru, and during which anti-India slogans were raised. He was attacked twice at a lower court last week.
During a hearing on his bail earlier this week, the Delhi High Court told the police to make sure "no one suffers even a scratch" while he is produced in court. His petition will now be heard on Monday. The Supreme Court has ordered heavy security for the hearing.
The National Human Rights Commission has said the attack on Kanhaiya "appears to be organised and pre-planned." Mr Kumar has told the panel that he was "arrested without any valid reason and without being informed about the grounds of his arrest."
The five other students accused of sedition surfaced on campus on February 21 after being missing since February 12. Two of them - Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya - surrendered at the university campus on Tuesday night after their request to surrender at a secret location was rejected by the High Court.
Another student, Ashutosh, joined the police probe into the event today. He is likely to be asked to identify those who raised anti-national slogans.
In their five-hour questioning, Umar and Anirban have reportedly told the police that "outsiders" raised anti-India slogans at the campus. They were reportedly confronted with 28 inflammatory slogans and also shown pictures of the slogan-shouters but haven't identified them.
Police sources claim Umar Khalid has said he conceived the idea of the event while Anirban prepared the publicity material and distributed it.
Their custody ends today. The Delhi Police is likely to tell court that it needs more time to interrogation the two.