'We want freedom in India, not freedom from India'

An Indian student leader facing sedition charges has called for "freedom in India" in a rousing speech to students at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), after being released on bail.

Kanhaiya Kumar received a hero's welcome at the JNU campus in New Delhi on Thursday night and addressed a large gathering of students and faculty members, cautioning authorities from suppressing freedom of speech and the right to dissent.

"The struggle is long. The more you try to suppress us, the higher we will rise...we are not asking for freedom from India, but asking for freedom in India."

Kumar said that the BJP government did not take kindly to any criticism of its functioning or ideology.

"If you speak against the government, their cyber cell will send your doctored videos and count the number of condoms in your hostel; 69 per cent people of this country voted against their ideology. Only 31 per cent are those who were fooled by their 'Jumlebaazi'."

On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court granted Kumar six months interim bail while the police investigate his case.

 The student union leader denies he was among those chanting anti-India slogans at a rally last month, held to mark the 2013 hanging of Kashmiri Mohammed Afzal Guru over a deadly attack on the Indian parliament. Two other students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, are accused of being among the organisers of the JNU event and have been arrested on the same sedition charge as Kumar.

A Delhi government report published on Thursday said while no witness or video evidence could be found implicating Kumar, the role of other students at the rally "must be investigated further".

Sedition carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, although convictions are rare.