Jawaharlal Nehru University students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were released from jail on Friday hours after a Delhi court granted them interim bail for six months on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 25,000 each. They were asked to remain in the capital for this six-month period. Khalid had filed a bail plea in a Delhi court earlier this month.

According to NDTV, Khalid said though he did not project himself as a practising Muslim, he was treated like an Islamist terrorist. "I want to say this government and RSS felt they could break us, our unity and our courage. They were wrong," he said during a speech at the JNU campus after his release. He added that he had "no grief or embarrassment over being booked for sedition, the law under which the great freedom fighters of the country were booked".

The two student activists were arrested on charges of sedition last month for allegedly raising anti-national slogans at an event organised to protest the hanging of Parliament attacks convict Afzal Guru event held on the campus. Khalid was believed to be the main organiser of the February 9 event. JNU Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, who was also arrested on charges of sedition in connection with the same event, was granted interim bail on March 3.