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New Delhi/Nagpur: A high-level internal committee of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has found 21 students guilty of holding a controversial event on the campus last month, which had led to the incarceration of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others.
A high-level internal committee of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has found 21 students guilty of holding a controversial event on the campus last month, which had led to the incarceration of JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others.
The committee, in its unanimous report submitted to Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar today, has accused the students of violating university norms and rules by organising an event in the memory of Parliament attacks convict Afzal Guru.
The Office of JNU’s Chief Proctor would take further action by issuing show cause notices to the concerned students including Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Kahaiya Kumar and ABVP’s Sourav Sharma , a university source said.
Last week, the JNU had revoked the suspension of eight students after the high-level probe panel submitted its report on the February 9, incident wherein anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.
The administration had clarified that it hasn’t given any clean chit to the students and that the final decision on the matter will be taken after the examination of the report by the Vice-Chancellor.
“The high-level inquiry committee, constituted by the vice chancellor to investigate the 9 February 2016 incident that took place in JNU Campus, has submitted its report. The report is under consideration by the JNU administration,” said a statement issued by the varsity.
Besides JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, the eight suspended students included Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Ashutosh, Rama Naga, Anant Kumar, Shweta Raj and Aishwarya Adhikari. They were suspended on February 12 for their alleged involvement in organising an event to protest the hanging of the parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on his third death anniversary.
Kanhaiya, who is facing sedition charges for participating in a JNU event held to commemorate the death anniversary of terrorist Afzal Guru, was recently released on six-month interim bail.
The JNU Students Union later said that it was not going to accept the enquiry committee report since it continues to demand expansion of committee with the SC/ST representatives.
“We met the Vice-Chancellor and he told us that the suspension on eight of us will be revoked from midnight. He said that he has received the high level enquiry report and action (on students) will be announced next week. We told him that JNUSU does not accept this enquiry committee since we has passed a resolution two days ago in which we demanded that enquiry committee should be democratized,” said Kanhaiya Kumar.
“There is apprehension on the role of registrar and how information has been leaked from this (administration) office. The VC has to address this. Otherwise there is no legitimacy of this enquiry committee. We still want the VC to listen to the other side (students) also before taking an action,” he added.
Several questions have been raised against the probe committee. It initially had three members but due to pressure from teachers and students for broadening the panel, the university had added two more members to it.
