New Delhi, Feb 16: Former Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani, booked for sedition for allegedly organising an event at the Press Club of India to mark the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, was arrested in the wee hours of Tuesday morning on sedition and other charges in connection with an event in which anti-India slogans were raised, police said.
“Geelani was arrested around 3 am at the Parliament Street police station under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 149 (unlawful assembly),” DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.
The arrest comes in the wake of growing political tensions over alleged anti-India protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) which spilled over to a Delhi court where a mob of lawyers thrashed reporters before a hearing in a sedition case against student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar.
Geelani was called to the police station on late Monday night where he was detained and questioned for several hours, and later arrested. After his arrest, he was taken to RML Hospital for a medical examination, he said.
JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested too over sedition charges in connection with an event on 9 February where JNU students were protesting against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
At an event in Press Club on 10 February, in which Geelani was present on the dais along with three other speakers, a group allegedly had shouted slogans hailing Afzal Guru. Taking suo motu cognisance of the matter, the police registered a case against Geelani and other unnamed persons on 12 February.
Police had claimed that Geelani was booked as he is presumed to be the “main organiser” of the event.
“Request for booking a hall at the Press Club was done through Geelani’s e-mail and the nature of the event was proposed to be a public meeting, which did not turn out to be so,” a senior official had said.
Following the registration of the FIR, the police questioned for two consecutive days DU professor Ali Javed, a Press Club member, under whose membership number the hall for the event was booked.
In 2001, Geelani was arrested by Delhi Police in connection with the Parliament attack case but acquitted for “need of evidence” by the Delhi High Court in October 2003, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2005, which at the same time had observed that the needle of suspicion pointed towards him.
On the same day, a mob of lawyers thrashed reporters before a hearing in a sedition case against JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar in Patiala House court complex in Delhi. Kumar, who was arrested and charged with sedition by the Delhi Police last Friday, was sent to police remand for two more days.
