Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury are among nine persons who have been booked on sedition charges in connection with the Jawaharlal Nehru University row, the Hyderabad police said on Sunday, reports PTI.

An FIR has been registered against Gandhi, Kejriwal, Yechury, Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Ajay Maken, Communist Party of India leader D Raja, Janata Dal (United) Spokesperson KC Tyagi, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and JNU research scholar Umar Khalid on the order of a court in Hyderabad, based on a complaint filed by lawyer Janardhan Goud.

“It is a court-referred matter," Saroornagar Police Station Inspector S Lingaiah said. "Following the court’s directive, a case under section 124A of the IPC (sedition) has been registered" against nine persons.

The court has posted the matter for hearing on March 4.

In his petition, Goud said Gandhi and other leaders, despite being aware that Delhi Police had registered a case against Kumar on charge of sedition had visited JNU campus and knowingly supported them and hence it “amounted to sedition”.