A Delhi court on Saturday ordered the Delhi police to register an FIR against writer Arundhati Roy, hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, revolutionary poet Varavara Rao and four others for allegedly making anti-India statements at a convention on Kashmir “Azadi: The Only Way,” organised on October 21 in New Delhi.
The four others are Delhi University professor S.A.R. Geelani who was acquitted in the Parliament attack case, Kashmir University law professor Sheikh Shaukat Hussain, Shuddhabrata Sengupta and Sujato Bhadra.
Cogent evidence
Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha noted that there was prime facie cogent evidence against the accused and asked the Delhi police to lodge an FIR under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and file a compliance report in this regard on January 6, 2011 — the next date of hearing.
On November 3, the court had ordered the Delhi Police to submit a status report by November 16 after a complaint by an organisation, “Roots in Kashmir,” that the police had not taken any action following a complaint filed by the group at the Tilak Marg police station on October 28.
Complaint
Vikas Padora, counsel for Sushil Pandit, had filed a complaint under section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code on November 3 seeking either the registration of an FIR or a direction to the police to file a report after probing the alleged anti-India statements made at the convention.
After much delay, the Delhi Police finally submitted a status report on Saturday but the court rejected the report which said that the accused had made no inflammatory speeches and no offence relating to sedition and other charges could be made against Geelani, Ms. Roy and others.
Police pulled up
On Friday, the court had pulled up the police for submitting a report which did not detail any of the actions taken as part of the investigation and ordered that a proper “status report” be submitted by Saturday.
