Freed Umar Khalid gets rousing welcome at JNU, says proud to be booked under sedition law

New Delhi: Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya on Friday received a rousing welcome from fellow students at JNU after they were released from Tihar Jail on bail.

Some 400 students have welcomed them at the gate, media reports said.

Wasting no time, Khalid hit out at the government saying, “We are proud to be booked under the sedition law under which freedom fighters were arrested. I am not ashamed.”

“The government and the RSS thought they could break us, but they failed,” he said amidst cheering supporters at the campus.

He also expressed his anger against a section of the media for "biased reporting".

"I was accused of being in the Jaish-e-Mohammed, everyday there were new accusations, a media trial against me," Khalid said, adding, “I don’t think the media is acting independently. In many cases, the media has already made up its mind. You’d think that the opinion is created after the investigation. But no.”

“I am here, It's a big win for us,” he exclaimed.

Khalid and Bhattacharya were sent to jail in connection with the anti-national sloganeering case in the campus on Feb 9.

JNSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was also jailed in connection with the case. 

Their arrests on sedition charges have created a political storm with parties divided on the ambit of the British era law.