Sanction to prosecute Shehla Rashid over 2019 Tweets on Army given by Delhi L-G

Shehla Rashid
Image Courtesy: livewire.thewire.in

New Delhi: The Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, V.K. Saxena, has granted sanction to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union vice-president Shehla Rashid over her three year ol tweets on the Indian Army, reported Hindustan Times.

The belated sanction relations to a 2019 FIR against Rashid registered under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code. The proposal for sanction to prosecute was put forth by the Delhi Police (which comes under the Union home ministry) and supported by the Delhi government’s home department, the L-G said while granting sanction.

The FIR had been filed on the complaint of one Alakh Alok Srivastava. Rashid’s August 18, 2019 tweets had reportedly accused army personnel of entering people’s houses in Kashmir and creating an atmosphere of fear. The army had then rejected the allegations and said such “unverified and fake news are spread by inimical elements and organisations to incite an unsuspecting population”.

“Not every tweet is to be proceeded with, under criminal law. But the tweet of the kind in this case needs to be processed against religious fault-lines have been created in J&K [Jammu & Kashmir] by the likes of Shehla Rashid,” the Delhi government’s home department reportedly said in its opinion to the L-G. “The case is made of for prosecution u/s 153A IPC [Indian Penal Code]. This relates to public order.”