Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (LG) VK Saxena has given his nod for the prosecution sanction against Shehla Rashid, former vice president of the JNU Students' Union and member of AISA, for her couple of tweets against the Indian Army in 2019.
The prosecution sanction was granted under the relevant section 196 of CrPC 1973. The L-G office noted that the tweets were intended to incite conflict between different groups and engage in acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.
What Delhi police said in its proposal?
The proposal to this effect moved by the Delhi Police and supported by the Home Department, GNCTD, had submitted the following facts: "On 18.08.2019, one Ms. Shehla Rashid, resident of Kashmir made following two tweets about the Indian Army:
"Armed Forces are entering houses at night, picking up boys, ransacking houses, deliberately spilling rations on the floor, mixing oil with rice, etc" at 12.00 PM on 18.08.2019, and,
"In Shopian, 04 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 terrorized. This created an environment of fear in the entire area," at 12.00 PM on 18.08.2019."
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Indian Army rejects allegations
However, the Indian Army had rejected the allegations made by Rashid and termed them baseless.
"Such unverified and fake news are spread by inimical elements and organizations to incite unsuspecting population," the Indian Army had said. After the incident, an advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava made a complaint regarding the above tweets of Shehla Rashid.
The Home Department, GNCTD, in its observations on the file has observed that the nature of the case, location to which the tweets refer and making false allegations against the Army makes it a serious issue. "Not every tweet is to be proceeded with, under criminal law. But the tweet of the kind, in this case, needs to be processed against Religious fault-lines have been created in J&K by the likes of Shehla Rashid. The case is made for prosecution u/s 153A IPC. This relates to public order," it added.
(With inputs from IANS)
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