Ramjas College
Twenty-five days after Delhi Police filed an Action Taken Report (ATR) on the Ramjas College violence stating that the videos shot during the incident are “not clear and look doctored”, a Delhi court Tuesday said sedition charges cannot be pressed on the basis of an “unauthenticated, unreliable video”.
The court was Tuesday hearing a plea by advocate Vivek Garg, who sought to register an FIR under charges of sedition, criminal conspiracy, waging war against the state and defamation against those allegedly raising anti-national slogans at the college in February. He also demanded action against police officers for not lodging the complaint.
In February, the ABVP had filed a complaint, alleging that teachers and students of the college had raised “anti-national slogans”, after they were forced to cancel a seminar on ‘Cultures of Protest’, following opposition over invites to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid.
Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra told the petitioner: “Authenticity of the video is not established. What is the source of the video? On the basis of unreliable material, how can we press charges of sedition?”
Garg argued that police filed the ATR five months after the incident and haven’t started questioning students yet. On this, the court said, “Tell me the causa proxima in this case that poses a threat to society or the government.”
(With PTI inputs)
