New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena has given permission to Delhi Police to prosecute noted writer Arundhati Roy and former professor and political analyst on Kashmir Sheikh Showkat Hussain in a 13-year-old case on charges of giving “inflammatory speeches and disturbing social and religious harmony”, sources said.
Sources familiar with the development said that the Lieutenant Governor's Secretariat, while approving the proposal to prosecute Roy and Hussain said that during a public function in Delhi in October 2010, the two had given inflammatory speeches which amounted to promoting hatred between communities. Prima facie, a case was registered under section 153 A 153 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code for the speeches given.
According to the information received from the Lieutenant Governor's Secretariat, a conference was organized for the release of political prisoners under the program named "Azadi is the only way" on 21 October 2010 at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Road, New Delhi. Sushil Pandit, a social worker from Kashmir, had filed a complaint against the speakers at Tilak Marg police station in Delhi on 28 October 2010.
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Sushil Pandit had alleged that the speakers called for separation of Kashmir from India which amounted to treason. Later the complainant filed a complaint under Section 156 (3) of CrPC in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate of New Delhi. On the instructions of the Metropolitan Magistrate, the police had registered an FIR under various sections including sedition.
However, the Lieutenant Governor has not approved the prosecution under section 124A of treason in view of the Supreme Court directions in May last year that the proceedings with regard to cases dealing with 124A (Sedition) of IPC be kept in abeyance. In November 2010, the Metropolitan Magistrate of New Delhi had ordered to register a case against Roy and Hussain under sections 153A, 153B and 505 of the IPC after which the Delhi Police had registered a case against both of them.
Two other accused in this case, Kashmir separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and DU lecturer Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court on technical grounds in the attack on Parliament, died during the proceedings of the case.
