New Delhi DCP Madhur Verma with Khalid, who was taken to Parliament Street police station. (Renuka Puri)
The Delhi Police on Tuesday transferred the case of attack on Jawarharlal Nehru University PhD scholar Umar Khalid to the Special Cell. Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik ordered the case to be investigated by the Special Cell.
The move came a day after Khalid was targeted by an unidentified armed assailant outside Constitution Club near Parliament, where security has been stepped up for Independence Day. He escaped unhurt.
After the incident, Police had said the JNU student leader escaped after a scuffle with the assailant, who fled after his weapon “jammed”. Police have also recovered CCTV footage of the attacker from a camera installed at the RBI building across the road and said he had dropped the gun as he escaped.
Khalid was at Constitution Club to attend an event, ‘Khauf se Azadi: Towards Freedom Without Fear’, organised by an NGO, United Against Hate.
Incidentally, Khalid had sought police protection two months ago saying there was a “danger to his life”. Police sources said they had tried to approach him about the complaint on several occasions and that he was unavailable. Khalid was to meet police about security on Tuesday.
The accused fled after the pistol slipped off his hands. (Express photo)
Police sources said that the gun found outside Constitution Club appeared to be a 7.65 mm country-made pistol and that it had been sent to the FSL to determine if it had been fired. “The pistol recovered from the spot is an old one and is rusted and jammed. We have also recovered all the six live cartridges and sent it to Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL),” said DCP (New Delhi) Madhur Verma.
On the basis of Khalid’s complaint, a case has been registered under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC and sections of the Arms Act at the Parliament Street police station.
Jawaharlal Nehru University PhD scholar Umar Khalid showing his arm after he was shot at, during an event at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on Monday, Aug 13, 2018. Khalid escaped unhurt. (Express photo by Renuka Puri)
Khalid, along with former JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya, was arrested on sedition charges in 2016 in connection with the February 9 event on the JNU campus. The event, organised to protest the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, was at the centre of a storm then after allegations that students had raised anti-India slogans. No chargesheet has been filed in the sedition case as of now and all three are on bail.