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Indian Supreme Court refuses to hear bail plea of student leader charged with sedition

Xinhua, February 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

India's Supreme Court Friday refused to hear the bail plea of a student leader arrested on charges of sedition last week for chanting anti-India slogans in a protest against the hanging of a convict of the 2001 Parliament attack some years back.

The lawyers for Kanhaiya Kumar, the student leader of prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in the national capital, had moved the top court, saying they did not feel safe to move any other court for bail because of the violence and protests by lawyers.

However, the Supreme Court told his lawyers to move the Delhi High Court first, as taking up the bail plea of the 28-year-old student leader directly might give a wrong message that other courts of law in this country are incapable.

"You should go to the Delhi High Court first," the judges told the student leader's senior lawyer Raju Ramachandran, turning down his request to hear the bail plea.

Kumar is currently lodged in Tihar jail and his lawyers have also cited in his bail plea before the Supreme Court that he faces a perceived threat to his life in the prison where he fears he might be attacked by co-prisoners.

The student leader was thrashed Wednesday by a group of lawyers at a lower court in Delhi after his police custody ended, prompting huge condemnation from opposition parties and students across the country. Endit