JNU sedition case: BJP youth wing members stage protest near Delhi CM's residence

Members of BJP's youth wing BJYM in Delhi on Saturday staged a protest near Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence demanding him to give prosecution sanction in the 2016 JNU sedition case.

The Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists tried to move past a barricade near Kejriwal's Flagstaff Road residence but were stopped by police and many of them taken away to a nearby police station from where they were released later.

The protesters raised slogans against the Kejriwal government and also tore down posters and banners outside the Chief Minister's residence.

There were reports in news papers that the AAP government has rejected  permission for prosecution of former JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the sedition case, BJYM's Delhi unit president Sunil Yadav claimed.

"Kejriwal should clarify if he sides with anti-nationals who raised slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' in JNU. If he is not, then he should give permission to prosecute the accused in the JNU sedition case of 2016," Yadav said.

Kejriwal on Friday had said the Delhi government has not yet taken any decision on the prosecution sanction against Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the sedition case.

He, however, said the home department of the Delhi government will take an appropriate decision after taking all facts into consideration.

The chief minister also rejected media reports on the issue as "speculation".

The BJP has been trying to corner the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the issue with the party's Delhi unit president, Manoj Tiwari, alleging that the Kejriwal government felt "patriotic" slogans were raised at JNU.

"If an elected government supports a slogan like 'Bharat ki barbadi tak jang rahegi jari' and thinks that it does not involve any punishment, then it means the government thinks it as a patriotic slogans. The BJP condemns this stand of the AAP," Tiwari had said.

A city court has granted two months to the Delhi Police to secure the requisite sanctions to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar and the others in the case.

A charge sheet in the case was filed by police in January this year.

Kumar and others, including former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, are named in the charge sheet of the police that says they were leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised in the JNU campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The protesters raised slogans against the Kejriwal government.
• Kejriwal had said the Delhi government has not yet taken any decision.
• Kejriwal also rejected media reports on the issue as "speculation".