New Delhi: Delhi Police on Monday told the High Court they have no video evidence of JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar raising anti India slogans and were relying on three eye witness statements.
This a clear climbdown from the earlier stance of the Delhi Police that they have clear evidence, including video, to implicate Kanhaiya in the sedition case.
Delhi Police counsel Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta said the video they have showed Kanhaiya leading the group, but not of him shouting anti-India slogans.
Justice Pratibha Rani reminded him that, "Presence at the spot is different from participation in anti-national slogans."
Kanhaiya's lawyer Kapil Sibal told the court that he was at the location only to oppose any fight between the group organising and the one opposing the campus event in memory of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
"Nowhere Kanhaiya was seen shouting any slogan. The court can look into the video. There were some people with covered faces, who were shouting slogans. They have not been arrested. Who were they, have they not yet been identified by the police," Sibal contended.
The bench also asked ASG Mehta why the police personnel present at the JNU event in civil dress not take action immediately if anti-national slogans were raised.
The Delhi police counsel later told reporters that they were not relying on the video and that they have evidence to prove that Kanhaiya organised the event.
The order on Kanhaiya's bail plea has been reserved for March 2.
He was taken to one-day police custody on February 25 and was thereafter remanded back in judicial custody for two weeks on February 26.
In their status report filed before the high court, police had alleged Kanhaiya had not only participated in the event in JNU campus on February 9 where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised but had "actually organised" the programme.
They had claimed that besides Kanhaiya and other accused, some "foreign elements" were also present during the event and they had covered their faces to hide their identity.
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