New Delhi, January 14: Former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid issued a statement on Monday, hours after the Delhi Police filed a chargesheet against him and 9 others, including current and former students of the varsity. Dismissing the grave charges, including sedition, levelled against him, Khalid said the chargesheet is part of the Centre's "symphony of lies".

"If the last four years saw the people of the country grappling with one jumla after the other, the closing months would be seeing the crescendo in the symphony of lies," he said, claiming that government chose to carefully level the "false charges" ahead of the elections to make nationalism as the theme of the upcoming parliamentary polls. From 'Bharat Tere Tukde Honge' to 'Kashmir Ki Azaadi': List of All Slogans Allegedly Raised by Chargesheeted JNU Students.

Read Below the Full Statement Issued by Umar Khalid:

The controversial event in JNU campus was held on February 9, 2016 -- when a section of the varsity students had organised a programme to commemorate the death anniversary of convicted Kashmiri militant Afzal Guru.

After the event, a series of clips were uploaded on social media, in which seditious slogans were heard. The accused students claim that some of the contentious slogans were raised by miscreants who had infiltrated the event, whereas, other seditious rants were "doctored" into the footage.

Apart from Khalid, other prominent student leaders charged with sedition are former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya. Apart from the 10 who have been booked under section 124-A (sedition), 36 others have been named as accused "without evidence". The second list includes prominent socio-political activist of Jammu region, Shehla Rashid.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 14, 2019 08:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).