New Delhi: Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury on Saturday urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to establish an independent magisterial enquiry into the ongoing Afzal Guru-Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row.
“We've requested CM Kejriwal to institute Independent magisterial enquiry in JNU crackdown matter,” he told reporters here, a day after arrest of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar on the charges of sedition.
Yechury further said, “Authenticity of evidence furnished by Central Govt can be established only through an independent enquiry.”
Expressing their dissent over the ongoing row at the JNU, earlier today, a delegation of Left parties met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and asked him to release Kanhaiya Kumar, the university's students' union president.
Hours after Singh and Human Resource and Development Minister Smriti Irani denounced the raising of alleged anti-India slogans in the JNU, the Delhi Police had yesterday arrested the Kanhaiya Kumar, on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy.
Yechury, who led the Left delegation to the Home Minister, further said that the actions taken by the police in the university, were even worse than what happened during the emergency
He also said that no one who would accept that JNU students are anti-national.
Reacting over the JNU row, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said that the premier academic institute cannot be allowed to be a hub of anti-national activities.
The Minister of State for Home also said that freedom of expression cannot be absolute and unqualified and reasonable restriction has to be there.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police today detained seven more students from the university.
According to reports, the students, who were trying to protest at Indira Gandhi Kala Kendra, have been taken to the Parliament Street police station for questioning in connection with the case.
After receiving an interim report from its disciplinary committee probing the involvement of the students at the event, the JNU yesterday debarred eight students from academic activities pending a disciplinary enquiry.
Kumar's arrest evoked strong reactions from JNU students and teachers, past and present, and Opposition parties even as the RSS's students wing ABVP 'thanked' police for arresting the "anti-nationals".
The arrest of Kumar, a member of the CPI's students wing AISF, was made a day after BJP MP from East Delhi, Maheish Girri, registered a complaint.
The alleged anti-India slogans were reportedly raised during a protest march on the campus on Tuesday against Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's hanging.
The protest was staged even though the JNU administration had revoked permission following a complaint from the ABVP.
