New Delhi: Political activist Shehla Rashid has been booked for sedition over her comments about alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police lodged an FIR against Rashid under Sections 124-A, 153A, 153, 504, 505 of the Indian Penal Code, for claiming on 18 August that the Indian Army was indiscriminately picking up men, raiding houses and torturing people in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The FIR was registered on Tuesday. Investigation is underway,” Special Cell DCP Manishi Chandra told the ThePrint.
The case was registered on 19 August based on a complaint received from Supreme Court lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastav, in which he sought Rashid’s arrest for spreading “fake news”.
A day earlier, Rashid had tweeted: “Armed forces are entering houses at night, picking up boys, ransacking houses, deliberately spilling rations on the floor, mixing oil with rice.”
10) In Shopian, 4 men were called into the Army camp and "interrogated" (tortured). A mic was kept close to them so that the entire area could hear them scream, and be terrorised. This created an environment of fear in the entire area.
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) August 18, 2019
According to the FIR, Rashid “deliberately and intentionally tried to spread fake news with the intent to incite violence in the country, to malign the image our revered Indian Army nationally as well as internationally, to create unrest in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and in other parts of the country, to promote disharmony, enmity, hatred and ill-will between different groups…”
It also mentioned how Rashid’s tweet was shared by Twitter users on international platforms causing irreparable injury to the reputation of India.
ThePrint tried reaching Rashid for comment, but her mobile phone was switched off.
The allegations
The allegations had drawn a sharp reaction from the Indian Army. Rashid, however, had said she was ready to give the evidence when the Army constituted an inquiry.
“I have given you my statement. Has the Army initiated any inquiry?” she had said.
“All I have said is based on authentic conversations with people who have come from Kashmir and have absolutely no reason to lie. I have given a lot of statements, not just one. People are running out of LPG cylinders, cooking gas in Kashmir.”
Rashid, a former vice-president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, had said if the Army initiated an inquiry, she would depose before it and “give them the particulars of the incidents… where they have happened”.
The Army, however, had said, “Allegations levelled by Shehla Rashid are baseless and rejected. Such unverified and fake news is spread by inimical elements and organisations to incite unsuspecting population.”
Jammu and Kashmir Congress leader Salman Nizami had also rejected her allegations, tweeting that “no such incident of Army torturing youth in open” had taken place.
Also read: Criminal complaint filed against Shehla Rashid for ‘spreading fake news’ against Indian Army