New Delhi: The Delhi police special cell has initiated a probe in the case filed by a Supreme Court lawyer against Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement leader Shehla Rashid after she alleged through a series of tweets that the Armed Forces have “tortured” civilians and “ransacked” houses in the Valley after Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was revoked.
Supreme Court lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava had filed a complaint with Delhi police commissioner Amulya Patnaik, stating that the allegations levelled by the former JNU student leader were “absolutely false and concocted.”
In his complaint, Mr Srivastava had said that Ms Rashid’s allegations were baseless as she had neither produced any “voice recording” of the alleged torture nor the date and time of the incidents.
He also accused Ms Rashid of “deliberately spreading fake news with the intention to incite violence in the country” and maligning the image of the Indian Army.
Her action is “prima facie an offence of sedition” since she intended to “excite disaffection towards the government of India,” Mr Srivastava said in his complaint.
“After the complaint was received, it was handed over to the Delhi police’s special cell for inquiry. Shehla has been booked under Sections 124A (sedition); 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language); 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot); 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace); and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The case was registered on September 3,” said a senior police official.
The Delhi police’s special cell is also investigating the sedition case against Ms Rashid’s batchmate and former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, among others.
In January this year, the Delhi police filed a charge sheet in the court against Kumar and nine others for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during an event at the JNU on February 9, 2016.
