Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police Monday booked Madri Kakoti, an assistant professor in the linguistics department of University of Lucknow, for several offences, including sedition, in relation to her social media posts on the Pahalgam terror attack. The action comes a day after the state police registered an FIR against folk singer Neha Rathore for her comments against the government in the wake of the attack.
The FIR against Kakoti has been lodged at Hasanganj police station on the basis of a complaint from member of right-wing student outfit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and university student Jatin Shukla.
According to the FIR, which has been accessed by ThePrint, Shukla has alleged that Kakoti in her social media posts, particularly on X, was consistently targeting India’s unity, integrity, and sovereignty and threatening peace and order.
It is also alleged that her posts appear intended to incite riots in India. “Dr Kakoti frequently uses terms such as ‘saffron terrorists’ on her platforms,” it states, adding that some of her posts were being shared by Pakistani YouTube channels.
Kakoti has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections pertaining to propagation of religious hatred using the right to free speech and expression, promoting enmity between groups, making and publishing statements, false information, rumours or reports through electronic means, intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, uttering words intending to wound religious feelings, endangering the unity of India, and under the IT Act.
Lucknow police functionaries confirmed to ThePrint that Dr Madri Kakoti has been booked for sedition and other offences.
The professor, in a statement to the media following the lodging of the FIR, had denied saying anything that could hurt people’s sentiments. Later, in a post on X Tuesday, she clarified her words and issued an apology.
“In the tweets and videos made by me, the word terrorist/terrorist is only and only for the terrorists supported and sponsored by Pakistan, who carried out the brutal killing of Indians in Pahalgam by asking their religion…” she states.
“I am very sad that despite being a teacher, I could not explain what I meant. Despite having a degree in linguistics, my language was not clear enough to convey my message… I am sorry that the meaning of my words has been misinterpreted and you have been hurt.”
Dr Kakoti is known as Dr Medusa on X and has over 1.5 lakh followers. She is an alumnus of University of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
On X, she raised the issue of the Pahalgam attack in several posts and also re-posted posts of opposition party leaders on the subject.
In one post a day after the attack in Kashmir, Kakoti wrote: “Shooting after asking someone’s religion is terrorism. So is, lynching after asking religion, firing a person from work after asking religion, not giving a house after asking religion, bulldozing a house after asking religion etc, etc., is also terrorism. Learn to recognise real terrorism.”
According to sources in the police, this was among the posts that put the professor under the lens of ABVP members, who scrutinised her profile and then filed the complaint against her.
On Sunday, the UP Police had booked singer Neha Rathore under 11 sections of the BNS. She had on social media lashed out at the Modi government over the Pahalgam attack, claiming that the BJP-led government would seek votes in Bihar in the name of the attack.
“BJP is working to weaken the country. Isn’t India’s Hindu-Muslim agenda weakening the country? This is what the terrorists want,” she said in another clip.
Later, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav played Rathore’s video during a press conference in her support and condemned the action against her.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: In 1st Mann Ki Baat post Pahalgam, Modi talks of anger among Indians, vows ‘harshest response’