Indian police arrest more students on sedition charge
AFP
AFP, NEW DELHI: Indian police said Wednesday they had arrested two students wanted in a sedition case that has sparked major protests after the pair gave themselves up following nearly two weeks on the run.
Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya surrendered to police at midnight on Tuesday after a court refused to grant them protection from arrest over a rally at their university where a group allegedly shouted anti-India slogans.
Student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested earlier this month over the rally, in a case that has brought thousands of students and teachers onto the streets to protest what they say is an official clampdown on dissent.
They accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist government of misusing the British-era sedition law, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Delhi police spokesman Rajan Bhagat pledged to protect Khalid and Bhattacharya after Kumar was assaulted by right-wing lawyers when he appeared in court for a preliminary hearing last week in an apparently orchestrated attack.
They will be produced in the court today. We will ensure their security, he said of the students, who are both in their twenties.
Khalids lawyer Kamini Jaiswal told AFP the two men had decided to cooperate with police, who had issued a wanted notice for them at the time of Kumars arrest on February 12 and alerted airports to stop them travelling abroad.
They are accused of involvement in a rally held at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi to mark the anniversary of the execution of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist.
