Two JNU students seen raising anti-India slogans, says panel

The February 12 arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, the first president of the JNU Students Union from the CPI-affiliated AISF, was widely denounced.

New Delhi:  The Jawaharlal Nehru University inquiry panel has named two more people for anti-India sloganeering on February 9 when an event was organised in the varsity campus to protest execution of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The high level inquiry committee report, which was submitted last week, mentions name of a JNU student identified as Mujeeb Gattoo of Kaveri hostel, participating in sloganeering with the a group of outsiders who shouted slogans such as "Kashmir ki Azadi tak, jang rahegi, jang rahegi", "Bharat ko ragda de, zor se ragdo, de ragda", "Ain (constitution) Hindustan ka manzoor nahi", "Go India Go Back", "We want freedom".

"Presence of a group of outsiders was noted by the security staff and confirmed by many other eyes witnesses. This group had their head and faces covered by a cloth/scarf most of the time," it states.

The report accessed by IANS, mentions: "A group of 10-15 masked outsiders also were part of the procession. It has been seen in the video clip that one JNU student Mujeeb Gattoo is seen raising slogans, 'hum kya chahate azadi, hum cheen ke lenge azadi'. Another student Mohammed Qadeer of Lohit hostel was seen close to Gattoo."

As per sources, Qadeer is a first year PhD student (Economics) and School of Social Sciences councillor. Gattoo is a student of School of Languages in the university. Both of them are from Kashmir.

The report further states that JNU students' union joint secretary and Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad member Saurabh Sharma informed police and media about the event on the same day.

Admitting the lapses committed by the university, the report says that the security did not make any efforts to stop the outsiders from shouting provocative slogans and also made no efforts to prevent them from leaving the campus.

On February 8, a booking requisition form was filled out by Umar Khalid. An undertaking was signed by four students: Khalid, Komal Mohite, Anirban Bhattacharya and Aswathi A. Nair.

The form had to be approved by the rector, the approving authority. Mohite took the form, which sought permission to hold a "Poetry reading - A country without a post office" at the Sabarmati Dhaba on February 9 from 5 p.m. to 7.30 p.m., to Professor Anupama Ray to have it forwarded by her.

Khalid took the form to the dean of students but as he was not available, the additional dean of students signed it.

The form had to be sent to the rector for approval, but was never taken to his office.

In the report it mentions that as per many eyewitness accounts, Kanhaiya, Rama Naga and Bhattacharya addressed the gathering but what they said was not audible. The crowd dispersed between 8.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. and the outsiders also left the campus.

IANS