JNU February 9 event: Probe panel suggests punishment, Kanhaiya Kumar rejects decision

New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University on Friday revoked suspension on eight students after a high-level probe panel submitted to the vice chancellor its report on the February 9 incident wherein anti-national slogans were allegedly raised in the campus.

Notably, the administration has clarified that it hasn't given any clean chit to the students and that the final decision on the matter will be taken after examination of the report by the Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar.

The panel, however, recommended some measures in the report against certain students include punishment and fines, The Indian Express quoted sources in JNU as saying.

Besides JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, the eight suspended students included Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Ashutosh, Rama Naga, Anant Kumar, Shweta Raj and Aishwarya Adhikari. They were suspended on February 12 for their alleged involvement in organising an event to protest the hanging of the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on his third death anniversary.

The JNU Students Union, however, has said that it is not going to accept the enquiry committee report since it continues to demand expansion of committee with SC/ST representatives.

"We met the vice chancellor today (Friday) and he told us that the suspension on eight of us will be revoked from midnight. He said that he has received the high-level enquiry report and action (on students) will be announced next week. We told him that JNUSU does not accept this enquiry committee since we has passed a resolution two days ago in which we demanded that enquiry committee should be democratised," said Kanhaiya Kumar.

"There is apprehension on the role of registrar and how information has been leaked from this (administration) office. The VC has to address this. Otherwise there is no legitimacy of this enquiry committee. We still want the VC to listen to the other side (students) also before taking an action," he added.

Several questions have been raised against the probe committee. It initially had three members but due to pressure from teachers and students for broadening the panel, the university had added two more members to it.

(With IANS inputs)