New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has granted sanction to the Delhi police to prosecute former JNUSU vice president and AISA member Shehla Rashid Shora for her tweets on the Indian Army, officials said on Tuesday. In regard to these tweets, the Delhi Police registered a sedition case against Shehla Rashid.
According to officials at the L-G office, the sanction is related to a 2019 FIR against her, under IPC section 153A, registered at the Special Cell police station in New Delhi, on the basis of a complaint by one Alakh Alok Srivastava. The former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) leader is accused of promoting enmity between different groups and indulging in acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony through her tweets, they said.
The proposal for the prosecution sanction was moved by the Delhi Police and supported by the Home Department of the Delhi government, the L-G office said. After the abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Shehla Rashid strongly opposed it. The tweets by Shora, dated August 18, 2019, had accused the Army of entering houses and "torturing" locals in Kashmir. The allegations were rejected by the Army as baseless.
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."
"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." However, the Indian Army had made a statement that the allegations levelled by Shehla Rashid were baseless and rejected them. "Such unverified and fake news are spread by inimical elements and organizations to incite unsuspecting population," the Indian Army had said.
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 a tweet of the kind, in this case, needs to be processed against Religious fault lines that have been created in J&K by the likes of Ms. Shehla Rashid. The case is made for prosecution u/s 153A IPC. This relates to public order."
Also in February 2016, when anti-national slogans were raised during a program at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Shehla Rashid was the Vice President of JNU and Kanhaiya Kumar was the President. Surrounded by allegations of anti-national slogans, Kanhaiya was sent to prison but she survived the arrest.
At the same time, she became vocal after the students were arrested in this case at the university. She was involved in demonstrations from the police headquarters to various places. Along with denying the allegations levelled against Kanhaiya Kumar on several fronts, she had put the student organization of the opposing faction in the dock.
