New Delhi: Lieutenant Governor (L-G) of Delhi V.K. Saxena Friday sanctioned the prosecution of author Arundhati Roy and former Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in an over a decade-old case of alleged hate speech.
The latest sanction for prosecution under UAPA comes eight months after the L-G, in October last year, accorded sanction to prosecute the two under IPC’s Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), Section 153B (punishment for those who make or publish statements that promote disharmony or hatred between different religious, racial, language, or regional groups) and Section 505 (inciting statements).
A Delhi court had on 4 December 2010 ordered that the Delhi Police register an FIR against Roy, Hussain, slain separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, poet Varavara Rao, former Delhi University professor S.A.R. Geelani — who was acquitted in the Parliament attack case — Shuddhabrata Sengupta and Sujato Bhadra for allegedly making anti-India statements during provocative speeches at a conference held under the banner of ‘Azadi – The Only Way’ and advocating the “separation of Kashmir from India”. The conference was held at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, in Delhi.
S.A.R. Geelani died of cardiac arrest in 2019 while Syed Ali Shah Geelani died in 2021 after prolonged illness.
Based on the court’s order, the Delhi Police booked them under IPC sections 124-A (sedition), 504 (disturbing peace and tranquility) 505 and Section 13 of the UAPA.
The FIR was registered on the basis of a police complaint filed by Kashmiri social activist Sushil Pandit, who had alleged that Roy and the others had made provocative speeches on 21 October, 2010.
According to reports, several women BJP workers had broken into Roy’s residence in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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