The Patiala House Court has lately ordered that Umar Khalid who was arrested in the 2016 JNU sedition case be produced before the court without handcuffs or fetters. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of the Patiala Court, Mr Pankaj Sharma has ordered that with regards to the facts and circumstances of the case, Umar Khalid should be first produced before the court in the virtual model and later on he can be produced in a routine manner without handcuffs or fetters.
Tracing the history of the case, on 11th February 2016 some unknown individuals had chanted anti-India during a commemoration of the hanging of Parliament attack mastermind, Afzal Guru on the JNU campus on February 9, 2016. In January 2019, a charge sheet was filed that contained documentary evidence and both CCTV and mobile footage in January 2019 which was rejected by the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, citing that it lacked the required sanctions to arrest Umar Khalid. Although, in the year 2020, the Delhi government had granted sanctions to arrest the persons accused of sedition under section 124A of IPC who were chanting anti-India slogans. Persons accused in the above case have charges framed under sections 124A, 323, 465, 471 149,147and120Bof the Indian Penal Code,1860.
