Kanhaiya Kumar has been touring universities where he has repeatedly attacked the government for what he describes as its divisive policies.
Highlights
- Threat letter found with revolver and cartridges in a bag
- Bag found on bus route that includes JNU, where Mr Kumar studies
- Mr Kumar, 28, charged with sedition in February, released on bail
and Umar Khalid, both students charged with sedition, will have their security reviewed after a revolver was found on a Delhi bus along with a letter that warns that they will be beheaded.
The students are PhD scholars at Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Their arrests in February triggered angry student protests in different parts of the country;
they were released on bail a few weeks later.
Last evening, the driver of a bus that runs between their university and Delhi's main bus terminal, the ISBT, found a bag with a revolver, six cartridges, and a note signed by "Amit Jhonny" (a fake name, cops say) that threatened Mr Kumar and Mr Khalid will be decapitated.
When he is not on campus, Mr Kumar is escorted by three policemen in plainclothes, police sources said. The university authorities have to inform the police every time he leaves the campus and security is provided. When he visits another state, the local police make the security arrangements on basis of the ground situation.
While under arrest, Mr Kumar, 28,
was kicked and slapped while being taken into court despite a ring of policemen around him. The assailants were led by lawyers who said the student deserved to be punished for "anti-nationalism".
Mr Kumar's arrest in particular pitted the government against the opposition after it emerged that the Delhi Police had wrongly declared that it had video evidence of him making incendiary remarks against India at a JNU event, called to protest against the hanging three years ago of Afzal Guru for his role in the attack on parliament in 2001.
The opposition and some student groups said that by arresting Mr Kumar and charging him with sedition, the government was guilty of trying to crush dissent and free speech on campuses. But other student groups supported the government, declaring that Mr Kumar and his friends must be held accountable for controversial slogans like calling for the destruction of India (he is not seen making those statements on camera).
Mr Kumar has been touring universities where he has repeatedly attacked the government for what he describes as its divisive policies.