Police said they have registered a case under the Arms Act against unknown persons and is still probing the matter
The security cover for three Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students — Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya — has been enhanced after the Delhi Police's intelligence unit informed the top officers that there was a "threat" to their lives.
The three students were arrested for alleged anti-India sloganeering in the campus on February 9. The security cover was reviewed after the police recovered an abandoned bag consisting a pistol, seven cartridges and a screw driver at the campus on November 7. Police said they have registered a case under the Arms Act against unknown persons and is still probing the matter. "We haven't got any clue in the case so far," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Nupur Prasad told DNA.
But in an internal note accessed by the DNA, the Special Branch of Delhi Police stated: "In the wake of conditional interim bail granted to Former JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya — who had been arrested in JNU matter dated February 2, 2016, during which anti-national slogans were shouted and a case under FIR number 110/16 was registered at Vasant Kunj north police station — threat to life still persists for all of them with recovery of arms and ammunitions."
The Special Branch further said that amid the raging protests over the disappearance of student Najeeb Ahmed from the campus last month, the threat to the lives of Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya has increased. Khalid and Bhattacharya had joined the protests over the missing JNU student outside the campus, along with other students and JNU Teachers Association, putting them in a vulnerable spot.
"The Supreme Court has directed to ensure safety and security of Kumar. A person named Amit Jain, President of Uttar Pradesh Nav Nirman Sena, has allegedly threatened that he may take extreme steps inside the JNU campus and against the two students with the help of other people," the police's internal report stated.
The report further said: "Keeping in view the overall situation and the past incidents, all precautionary measures, including sharp vigil, adequate arrangements by local police, traffic and Police Control Vans, have been suggested to avoid any untoward incident."
The local police probing the recovered arms and ammunition case, however, said they have not found any link between the recovered items and the students, so far, but "it is really a matter of concern".
Meanwhile, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police has not been able to record the statements of all the eight Kashmiri students who were involved in raising anti-India slogans at a memorial service for hanged terrorist Afzal Guru on the campus on February 9, along with Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya.
The event had been organised at Sabarmati Dhaba in JNU campus under the title 'Against Judicial Killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat'.
Sources said the probe into the case has hit a dead end as the top officers reportedly hinted the investigators to "go slow", following flak from various quarters.
The case was initially being probed by the local police but it was later transferred to the Special Cell when the role of Kashmiri students surfaced. It has been revealed that some of the Kashmiri students were from Jamia Millia Islamia and none of them were from JNU. The Special Cell will also not file a chargesheet in the case till the time all the eight students are interrogated.
The Special Cell sleuths had asked the students to join the probe but they did not "turn up". Sources added that the sleuths have also not been able to get any evidence against Kanhaiya Kumar.
Past imperfect
In April, a bag containing a loaded gun and a threatening letter was recovered from a JNU-bound bus following the sedition controversy. The letter stated that Kumar and Khalid will be decapitated. The Delhi Police had arrested two persons in connection with the case. One of the arrested persons was Saurabh, the younger brother of Uttar Pradesh Nav Nirman Sena Chief Amit Jain.
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