New Delhi, April 23: The Delhi government has filed a criminal case in the Patiala House courts here against two Hindi channels and one English channel for telecasting videos that have been found to be doctored, a government source said.
The channels had telecast videos of JNU students, including Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, at an event to commemorate Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's execution on February 9 on the university campus. Taking cognisance of these news broadcasts, police had registered cases of sedition against the students who were arrested and are now out on bail.
The government's complaint is based on an inquiry by New Delhi district magistrate Sanjay Kumar that found no JNU student guilty of raising seditious slogans. The probe also found several security guards gave false accounts of what had transpired.
The channels have been accused of misrepresentation, concealing facts and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.
The case is to be heard by a metropolitan magistrate on Monday. A source said the government's 226-page complaint says the broadcasts could have provoked communal violence in the capital.
Kanhaiya has been attacked several times after his release. A youth who slapped Kanhaiya at JNU last month claimed he did so after seeing the TV news reports of his speeches, that were allegedly doctored.