Delhi HC grants six months interim bail to Kanhaiya Kumar; JNU students celebrate

New Delhi: In a major relief to JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, the Delhi High Court granted him bail on Wednesday. He is likely to walk out of jail on Thursday after submission of all the bail related documents.

The Delhi HC has granted him interim bail for 6 months on surety bond of Rs 10,000. Kanhaiya Kumar's lawyers are likely to process the bail related documents on Thursday. 

Before granting bail to the JNUSU president, the court had put forth some conditions before him and JNU faculty. The court asked the JNU faculty to monitor the political actions of Kanhaiya Kumar.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal was the Kanhaiya's lawyer during his bail plea.

Earlier, on Tuesday, justice Pratibha Rani had reserved the order after over three hours of hearing on the bail plea of Kanhaiya who is accused of raising anti-India slogans inside JNU campus during an event organised on February 9.

What happened in court

During the hearing, while Kanhaiya's counsel had argued that the student leader had never raised any slogans against the nation, Delhi Police had maintained that there was evidence that he and others were shouting anti-India slogans and were holding Afzal Guru's posters.

Police had claimed that Kanhaiya was "not cooperating" in the probe and even came out with "contradictory" statements in joint interrogation by Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Delhi Police.

The defence lawyers including senior advocate Kapil Sibal had countered the allegations saying there were "some outsiders with covered faces who raised anti-India slogans and Kanhaiya was seen in CCTV footage asking them for their identity cards." 

The bench had also asked tough questions to the police on slapping sedition charge on the accused and asked it to show evidence against him of his "active role" in raising anti- India slogans.

Kanhaiya had also distanced himself from Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, the two other accused arrested in the case.

Meanwhile, the bail order triggered wild celebrations in JNU campus where hundreds of students, dominantly from leftist groups, celebrated, shouting slogans hailing Kanhaiya Kumar.

"We are happy, we are happy," a group of students said loudly, as per IANS.

Lawyer Vrinda Grover said she was happy with the bail order but said the surety would be provided only on Thursday when Kanhaiya Kumar is expected to walk out of Tihar Central Jail.

Special Public Prosecutor Shailendra Babbar told journalists that police would decide the next line of action after seeing the bail order.

"The order cleared one thing that we have some evidence to prove the charges framed against Kanhaiya," he said. 

"If there had been no ground in our evidence, Kanhaiya would have been given a proper bail instead of an interim bail" 

In Kanhaiya Kumar's hometown Begusarai in Bihar, family members and supporters burst crackers and hailed the court order. They also distributed sweets to residents.

Kanhaiya's arrest 

He was arrested on February 12 in the case which was registered under sections 124 A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

According to the police, a group of students had on February 9 held an event in the campus and allegedly shouted slogans against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Guru.

(With Agency inputs)