JNU to deliberate fate of 'seditious' 5 as cops wait for VC to direct their surrender

The JNU administration has called a meeting of top varsity officials today to discuss the resurfacing of five students on campus who the police were searching for in connection with a sedition case.

Police officials, who are positioned outside the varsity campus since Sunday night after they got inputs about presence of the students on campus, said they will talk to the Vice Chancellor after the meeting and ask him to direct the students to surrender.

Umar Khalid, one of the chief organiser of the controversial event on February 9 in support of the executed Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, during which anti-India slogans were raised, surfaced along with four others.

JNU Registrar Bhoopender Zutshi said he got to know about the presence of the students on the campus from media reports only and has not heard from any of them so far.

"We are having a meeting this morning in which the issue will be discussed and the future course of action will be decided," he said.
Zutshi, however, did not comment on whether the varsity officials will interact with the five students before taking a call or not.

Police officials said they are waiting for the VC to direct the students to surrender before them.

Read more:JNU row: Afzal Guru event was organized on false pretext, says professor

"All of them are here to join the movement against branding of the varsity as a den of anti-nationals.They have not been issued any summons so the question of them surrendering doesn't arise.If police arrests them they will cooperate with the enquiry," JNU Students' Union Vice President Shehla Rashid Shora said.

Five JNU students, including Umar Khalid, who the police have been looking for in connection with a sedition case, yesterday surfaced on the campus, saying they did not do anything wrong but were "framed" using a "doctored video".

The students had said that "they will not surrender but police can come and arrest them".

The five students Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash had gone missing from the campus since February 12 after JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case lodged in connection with an event held on the campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru where anti-naitonal slogans were allegedly raised.

According to Ashutosh, former president of JNU students union and a PhD scholar at varsity's School of International studies, they "have come back with a view of supporting the enquiry. The massive support we got from students and others from across the globe gave us the strength to return. I, Rama, Anirban and Anant were around but did not come in public due to atmosphere of mob lynching."

He had said that the four of them were not in touch with Umar Khalid and had spoken to him last on February 9, the day of the event.Ashutosh had said that the students were in Delhi itself and that the decision to return on Sunday evening had been taken individually and not collectively.

"We didn't do anything wrong but were being framed using doctored video. We will not go anywhere now and will be part of the movement against the branding of university as anti-national," he had said.