Hyderabad: A sedition case has been filed against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and 6 others in Telangana in connection with the JNU row.
The remaining 6 persons are: Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Ajay Maken, CPI leader D Raja, JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and JNU research scholar Umar Khalid.
According to Saroornagar Police Station Inspector S Lingaiah, the case was registered at the behest of a local court's direction.
All have been booked under the under IPC Section 124 A, 156(3) of the CRPC, the police official said.
"It is a court-referred matter. Following the court's directive, a case under section 124A of the IPC (sedition) has been registered yesterday against nine persons, including Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Sitaram Yechury, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and others," Lingaiah told reporters here.
The court has now posted the matter for hearing on March 4.
In his petition, complaint lawyer Janardhan Goud, had said that Rahul and other leaders, despite being aware that Delhi Police had registered a case against Kanhaiya on charge of sedition had visited JNU campus and knowingly supported them and hence it "amounted to sedition".
Kanhaiya and Khalid, who have earlier been arrested in Delhi on sedition charge, have also been booked here on the same charge.
Goud had filed a complaint in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate here on Thursday, seeking its direction to police for registration of a case against Kanhaiya and Khalid for allegedly raising anti-India and pro-Afzal Guru slogans on JNU campus and others.
In his petition, Goud said he has every right to question those who are indulging in "anti-national activities and also those who are encouraging anti-nationals in the name of solidarity for those who are facing criminal charges under section 124(A) of IPC.
(With PTI Inputs)
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