New Delhi: Umar Khalid, former Democratic Students Union (DSU) member who is absconding ever since he was booked for sedition in connection with a controversial JNU event, may be hiding some where in Himachal Pradesh.


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As per a report in Hindustan Times, a team of Delhi Police officials have been sent to Shimla in Himachal Pradesh in search of Khalid after his last movements were traced there.


According to reports, the Delhi Police team was rushed after Khalid’s cellphone records confirmed his presence in Shimla.


Various teams of Delhi Police are trying to trace Khalid and six other absconding students, including daughter of the senior CPI leader D Raja, in the past one week.


With no breakthrough in sight, the special teams of Special Cell, which mostly investigates terror-related cases, and Crime Branch, have also been roped in to arrest the absconding students.


All seven of them went underground soon after the police arrested JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar under sedition charges.


The seven absconders switched off their mobile phones the moment they came to know that the police had sent a notice to the university’s vice chancellor and sought details about them.


JNUSU president Kanhaiya’s arrest further assured them that they were on police’s radar.


Meanwhile, the investigators have also claimed to have found another video footage in which Kanhaiya, Khalid and others were allegedly seen raising slogans which were anti-RSS and pro-Afzal Guru, 2001 Parliament attack convict, on February 10 at the JNU campus, a day after anti-India slogans were shouted by a group of students led by Khalid and Kanhaiya.


The police have also questioned family members, relatives, friends and colleagues of Khalid and other absconding students to trace their hideouts.


Similarly, raids have been conducted in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, and in Himachal Pradesh, to trace and arrest the seven absconding JNU students.