Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has granted sanction to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union vice president and AISA member Shehla Rashid Shora for her tweets on the Indian Army, officials said on Tuesday.
According to officials at the LG office, the sanction is related to a 2019 FIR against her, under Section 153-A of the IPC, registered at Special Cell police station in New Delhi, on the basis of a complaint by one Alakh Alok Srivastava.
The student activist and a resident of Kashmir, in 2019, took to Twitter and attacked the Armed Forces for “terrorizing” the locals of Kashmir.
“Armed Forces are entering houses at night, picking up boys, ransacking houses, deliberately spilling rations on the floor, mixing oil with rice, etc,” Shehla tweeted on her official Twitter handle in August, 2019.
“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 terrorized. This created an environment of fear in the entire area,” she wrote in a follow-up tweet.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army rejected the claims of Rashid and identified them as baseless.
“The allegations levelled by Shehla Rashid are baseless and rejected. Such unverified and fake news is spread by inimical elements and organizations to incite unsuspecting population,” the Indian Army said.
The LG has granted the prosecution sanction under the relevant section 196 of CrPC 1973 and section 153 A of IPC for promoting enmity between different groups and indulging in acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.
Earlier in September 2019, an Advocate, Alakh Alok Srivastava, filed a complaint against the student activist and FIR was lodged under section 153 A of the Indian Penal Code.
Meanwhile, the Home Department, GNCTD, in its observations on file has observed that the nature of the case, the location to which the tweets refer and false allegations against the Army make it a serious issue. (ANI)