Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has sanctioned the prosecution of renowned author Arundhati Roy and former Professor of International Law at the Central University of Kashmir, Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, under section 45(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
This decision relates to an FIR registered on 29 November 2010, following a complaint by Hindu activist Sushil Pandit on 28 October 2010.
2010 UAPA Case Against Arundhati Roy Over Remarks On Kashmir
The charges stem from speeches delivered at a conference titled "Azadi – The Only Way," held on 21 October 2010 at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi. The conference featured speakers including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, SAR Geelani (anchor of the conference and prime accused in the Parliament attack case), Arundhati Roy, Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, and Maoist sympathiser Vara Vara Rao. The discussions allegedly propagated the separation of Kashmir from India.
In a video of the seminar, Roy, who won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 for her novel "The God of Small Things," is heard recalling an encounter with a television reporter who repeatedly asked her, "Is Kashmir an integral part of India?" She responded, "Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. However aggressively and however often you want to ask me that, even the Indian government has accepted that it is not an integral part of India. So why are we trying to change the narrative now?"
The conference took place amidst a period of intense unrest in Kashmir, following the death of a 17-year-old boy named Tufail Ahmad Mattoo struck by a tear gas canister. The subsequent cycle of protests resulted in the deaths of approximately 120 demonstrators in 2010, according to a report by the New York Times.
The complaint by Sushil Pandit led to the registration of the FIR after the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in New Delhi directed to lodge the same on 27 November 2010. In the complaint, Pandit said that several of the speeches, including the one by Arundhati Roy, had “jeopardised public peace and security,” further asserting that speakers promoted “separation of Kashmir from India”, the NYT reported.
The FIR, numbered 258/2010, charges the accused under sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (imputations prejudicial to national integration), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of the peace), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with section 13 of the UAPA.
Delhi LG Approves Prosecution Of Author Arundhati Roy Under UAPA
According to news agency PTI, Raj Niwas official stated, "Delhi LG, VK Saxena, has sanctioned the prosecution of Arundhati Roy and Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain under the UAPA. Last October, the LG had granted sanction under section 196 of CrPC to prosecute them for offences under sections 153A, 153B, and 505 of the IPC."
Author : ABP News Bureau
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