Srinagar, March 3, 2020: An Indian local court extended judicial custody of the three Kashmiri students charged with sedition for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans, by another five days.The Karnataka’s Hubbali court sent Basit Ashiq Sofi (19), Talib Majid (19) and Amir Mohiuddin (23), to judicial custody till March 7, Advocate B.T. Venkatesh pleading case of the illegally detained Kashmiri students told over phone to media men in Srinagar. Venkatesh said the bail application was moved on Friday last and on March 2, the session court heard the bail plea. The court, he said gave the prosecution two day for filing the objections.
On February 14, the three engineering students from KLE Institute of Technology in Hubballi were arrested and charged with sedition after a video of them shouting Pakistan Zindabad went viral.A day later, the Indian Hindu BJP-RSS dominated Hubballi Bar Association passed a resolution and barred its members from representing the three Kashmiri students.Twenty-four lawyers from Bengaluru including BT Venkatesh filed a petition with the Karnataka High Court against the Hubballi Bar Association’s resolution.
The High Court had reprimanded the bar association and reminded them that every accused is entitled to a fair trial. According to police officials, the selfie video of the three had gone viral as they posted it on WhatsApp. In the viral video, they allegedly were heard chanting “Azadi” and “Pakistan Zindabad”.The Kashmiri students were arrested and fake case on them was lodged by the compliant of Hindu BJP-RSS-VHP members at Gokul police station in Hubli where the students were lodged for a day.The students were arrested on February 15 and released a day later after they executed a bond but the Indian police re-arrested them on February 17 .