The
students being escorted by the police while a group of right-wing
activists and lawyers heckle and abuse them. Photo: Screengrab from
video
New Delhi: Three Kashmiri
students – Arsheed Yusuf, Inayat Altaf Sheikh and Showkat Ahmed Ganai –
arrested in Agra for allegedly raising “pro-Pakistan slogans” were on
Thursday booked for sedition, Uttar Pradesh Police officials said.
The three students, two of them aged 20 and one 21, were also
remanded in 14-day judicial custody by an Agra court, the officials
said.
While coming out of the court, they were allegedly heckled and chased by some people.
Meanwhile, a body of Jammu and Kashmir students urged Uttar Pradesh
chief minister Yogi Adityanath to withdraw the sedition charge against
them. Adityanath earlier in the day had said the sedition law will be
invoked against those celebrating Pakistan’s victory against India in
the recent T20 World Cup match.
“The three students were
arrested on Wednesday after an FIR was lodged against them at the
Jagdishpura police station. They were accused of raising pro-Pakistan
slogans in the wake of an India-Pakistan T20 cricket match and posting
celebratory messages on social media after Pakistan’s victory,” a police
official told PTI.
On Thursday, they were produced in a magistrate’s court in Agra, which remanded them in 14-day judicial custody.
“The FIR was initially registered under IPC Sections 153A (promoting
enmity between groups) and 505 (creating or publishing content to
promote enmity). Section 124A (sedition) of the IPC was included on
Friday in the case,” the police official said.
The three study in a private college, Raja Balwant Singh Engineering Technical College, affiliated to Agra University.
When the students were coming out of the court, some Hindu right-wing
activists raised slogans against Pakistan and chased them. Some lawyers
also heckled the students while they were being taken from the court to
a police vehicle, according to purported videos that emerged on social
media.
Nasir Khuehami, national spokesperson of the Jammu and Kashmir
Students’ Association, urged the Uttar Pradesh chief minister to drop
sedition charges against the students, seeking “mercy on humanitarian
grounds”.
They have urged the chief minister to intervene for the withdrawal of
the sedition case and the FIR against the students, he said in a
statement. “The college authorities must revoke the suspension of the
students, whom we urged to focus on their studies,” he said.
“These incidents may increase the sense of insecurity and anxiety
among Kashmiri students studying outside as well as among their parents
and relatives in Kashmir. We urge the Centre and state government to
ensure adequate security for their safety,” the statement continues.
Also read: Sedition Has No Room in Modern Democracies, Time for The Law to Be Repealed
Mansoor Wani, a research fellow at Agra University and mentor of the
accused students, said they were young and needed counselling instead of
such heckling. “We apologise on their behalf if they were involved in
such an unfortunate incident. But these are young men from financially
weak backgrounds. They need guidance. We will counsel them. They should
not be booked under such harsh laws. It will ruin their careers,” Wani
added.
The three students’ families too have asked the UP government to forgive the students, Indian Express reported.
“We were so happy. Recently, the college gave him an award for his
performance in the three years in the course… We got to know through
social media that he had been arrested. It has broken all of us,”
Ganai’s elder sister Fancy Bano, who is an intern at a Bandipora
hospital, told the newspaper.
RBS Engineering Technical College Director (Academics) R.B. Khushwaha told the Indian Express
that it was wrong to say “anti-India” slogans had been raised by
students. “On Tuesday, some people came and created a ruckus, despite us
taking action and the students apologising… On Sunday, after the match,
some students had uploaded some status on social media. Subsequently,
we sought a reply from the students and took action against them. They
had apologised on social media as well saying their intention was not to
hurt anyone’s sentiments,” Khushwaha was quoted as saying.
While police across the country are quick to use sedition charges
against, the legal validity of using this section is questionable. The
Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that sedition is constituted by
written or spoken words which “have the effect of bringing contempt or
dissatisfaction or the idea of subverting government by violent means”.
In Kedar Nath Singh v State of Bihar,
the apex court said that if comments, however strongly worded, do not
have the tendency to incite violence, they cannot be treated as
sedition.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court said that
it “is time to define the limits of sedition,” noting that sections of
the Indian Penal Code that deal with sedition require interpretation,
particularly in the context of media freedom.
(With PTI inputs)
Social media is bold.
Social media is young.
Social media raises questions.
Social media is not satisfied with an answer.
Social media looks at the big picture.
Social media is interested in every detail.
social media is curious.
Social media is free.
Social media is irreplaceable.
But never irrelevant.
Social media is you.
(With input from news agency language)
If you like this story, share it with a friend!
We are a non-profit organization. Help us financially to keep our journalism free from government and corporate pressure
0 Comments