NEW DELHI: An Indian student leader arrested on a controversial sedition charge was attacked on Wednesday when police brought him into court, as anger over a case that has sparked mass protests boiled over.

An AFP correspondent saw men inside the court set upon Kanhaiya Kumar, who was arrested on Friday over a rally at Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University where anti-India slogans were chanted.

India’s Supreme Court, which had directed Delhi police to ensure the safety of all inside the lower court following an earlier outbreak of violence, dispatched a team of lawyers to assess the situation.

“We have informed the Supreme Court about the atmosphere of terror in Patiala House,” said one of the lawyers, A.D.N. Rao.

“The accused was beaten up. The panel members were also heckled.”

The 32-year-old student union leader’s arrest has sparked a major row over freedom of expression in India, where some rights campaigners say the Hindu nationalist government is using the British-era sedition law to clamp down on dissent.

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

Kumar denies he was among those chanting anti-India slogans at last Tuesday’s rally to mark the 2013 hanging of Kashmiri separatist Mohammed Afzal Guru over a deadly 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.

The student leader was Wednesday sent to judicial custody until March 2.

Amnesty International called for the immediate release of Kumar and S.A.R Geelani, a former Delhi University lecturer arrested Tuesday on the same charge in connection with another event marking Guru’s death.

Television footage showed chaotic scenes as a frightened-looking Kumar was dragged inside by police, some carrying riot shields.

A large group of men outside the court, who appeared to be lawyers and some of whom were carrying Indian flags, chanted slogans including “Down with Kanhaiya Kumar.” Some threw stones at journalists who were there to cover the hearing.

Delhi police commissioner B. S. Bassi, who has come under fire over Kumar’s arrest, defended his officers’ handling of the situation.

“There was jostling, there was pushing and pulling. Notwithstanding the excitement of the crowd, our officers protected the accused,” he told reporters.

Bassi also said three lawyers and a state-level lawmaker with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had been summoned over Monday’s violence.