Anirban Bhattacharya: News

Anirban Bhattacharya is a student of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University who was accused of shouting anti-national slogans at the event organized on February 9, 2016. He allegedly belonged to the Democratic Students’ Union. He was one of the primary organizers of the program. The event was organized to mark the death anniversary of Kashmiri separatist Afzal Guru who was involved in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack. Bhattacharya was among five other students who were arrested along with Indian political activist and JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar. Bhattacharya is a resident of Benaras and studied at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi. His father worked as a professor of genetics at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya. On February 20, 2016, Delhi Police had issued a lookout notice for Bhattacharya and four others. Umar Khalid was one of the primary organizers of the event and sedition charges were filed against him. Bhattacharya and Khalid were potentially snooped on using Pegasus, spyware developed by the Israeli cyber arms firm NSO group.