Anurag Kashyap slams 'spineless' CM Arvind Kejriwal for nod to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar

Responding to the Delhi government's nod to the Delhi police to further the prosecution of former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar in the 2016 JNU Sedition case, Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Kashyap called the Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal, 'spineless'.

The Delhi government gave a go-ahead to the city police to prosecute former nine others along with Kanhaiya in connection with a four-year-old sedition case. Kashyap took to Twitter and lashed out at the Delhi CM saying, "I said it years ago.. he is a wannabe “PolPot”..." [sic], referring to the tinpot Cambodian dictator who unleashed untold atrocities on his citizens during his reign.

The trial is set to be heard from April 3 by a Delhi court. Kumar, the then-JNUSU president, was charged with raising seditious slogans in the JNU campus along with Umar Khalid, and Anirban Bhattacharya, among others who are also named. 

Reacting to the development, Kanhaiya Kumar tweeted, "Fast-track court and quick action is required in the sedition case so that the country gets to know how the sedition law was misused in this entire case for political benefits."

Manoj Tiwari says Kejriwal's nod on Kanhaiya comes seeing 'current political situation'

"Thank you to Delhi government for giving permission for the sedition case," he wrote on the microblogging site while urging the Delhi Police and government officials to take this case seriously and ensure justice.

Chronology of events 

Earlier on February 20, the Delhi Police requested the Delhi Government to give clearance so that they could take further action on Kumar's sedition case. In a letter to the Delhi Home Secretary, the police requested the government to provide sanction so that they could prosecute him and others. 

Soon after, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had said that he will ask the department concerned to take an 'early decision' on the prosecution sanction even though he did not have 'a say'. "I don't have a say in the department concerned (home). I cannot change their (department's) decision, but will ask them to decide as soon as possible," Kejriwal told reporters. 

The Kejriwal dispensation has taken considerable flak because it had refused sanction for the case for almost a year before finally allowing it, in what is percieved to be a political u-turn.

Public pressure forced Kejriwal to grant prosecution in JNU sedition case: Javadekar