JNU row: Khalid’s friends questioned

New Delhi: Delhi Police today questioned two friends of Umar Khalid, who is wanted in connection with the sedition case registered over the controversial event at JNU.

One friend, a student of a Central University here, was questioned at a south Delhi police station for nearly six hours. According to police sources, he is suspected to have helped Khalid “logistically” in organising the event.

Sources said the student was most likely present at JNU during the event as well. Police might call him for questioning again.

The other friend Sadiq Naqvi, a journalist, was questioned for the second time today in connection with the case.

Delhi police had approached him in Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh and questioned him about Khalid’s whereabouts.

Naqvi was Khalid’s classmate in Delhi University, where they both pursued graduation together. Khalid is one of the ten youths who the police are looking out for in connection with the event in JNU where anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.

A list of around 50 people, associated with the event that took place on February 9 has been prepared by the police.

Police have also asked the varsity administration to forward a copy of their internal enquiry report.

Meanwhile, around 10 days after registering a sedition case in connection with the event on the basis of a video clip broadcast by a Hindi news channel, Delhi Police have now asked the channel for the raw footage of the event and the chip in which the video was stored.

A letter communicating the matter to the channel was sent yesterday, a senior official said.

The investigating officer of the case has asked the news channel for the camera with which the event was covered and the chip in which it was saved to extract raw footage which is likely to be sent to a forensic laboratory.

This move came amid controversy surrounding ‘doctored’ videos broadcast recently by some channels in which JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was allegedly misrepresented as raising anti-India slogans.

These videos were then countered by other channels which had a different version leading to the controversy.