'Bharat ki Barbadi' gang to pay for their aggression; Umar Khalid rusticated, Kanhaiya Kumar fined

New Delhi: Umar Khalid has been rusticated while Kanhaiya Kumar fined of Rs 10,000 for raising anti-India slogans such as ‘Bharat tere Tukde Honge’ and ‘Afzal hum Sharminda hai’.

 

Notably, Jawaharlal Nehru University’s high-level inquiry committee on Thursday upheld its 2016 decision and served a rustication notice to Umar Khalid. While several others including the then JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, has been fined.

Speaking on the decision, Umar Khalid said that they would challenge the order in court. “We completely reject this order that has come from the JNU administration. Once again, it is a biased, politically motivated, a predetermined and a farcical judgment they have come up with. We are not accepting the fine or any other order, including the rustication. We are going to challenge it in a court of law in the coming days,” he said.

He said, “The predetermined nature of it is quite evident from the fact that this is the third time they have punished us, well this is the third time they have punished me in the last two years for the same alleged activities. The last two times, we had challenged it in the court and the court had set aside the punishment and ordered, both times, an appeal and a re-probe by the JNU administration.” “We are confident that the court will once again set it aside,” he added.

BACKGROUND:

In the year 2016, on February 9, several JNU students including Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya organized a pro-Afzal Guru event in the college campus. During the event, they raised anti-India slogans such as ‘Bharat tere Tukde Honge’ and ‘Afzal hum Sharminda hai’.

After this, they all including Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested on sedition charges. The JNU panel consisting of five members in it recommended rustication of Khalid and two other students and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Kanhaiya Kumar. The JNU panel had also imposed a financial penalty on 13 other students for violation of disciplinary norms.

Challenging this, the students had then moved the Delhi high court, which had directed the university to place the matter before an appellate authority to review the panel’s decision. However, the panel upheld its decision in the case of Khalid and Kumar.