Delhi court directs police to issue 10 day pre-arrest notice to JNU's Rashid

A Delhi court on Friday (November 15) granted relief to Shehla Rashid, leader of the People's Movement and former vice-president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student union. At the same time, the Delhi Police has been instructed to issue 10 day pre-arrest notice to Shehla Rashid if the need arises to arrest her in the alleged case of defaming Indian Army on social media. The court made this remark while disposing of Shehla Rashid's anticipatory bail application.

A case of treason has been registered against Shehla Rashid. Police said that Rashid had alleged in several tweets that after the withdrawal of special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the armed forces 'tortured' ordinary citizens in the valley and 'vandalized' homes.

On August 18, Rashid posted a series of tweets after the withdrawal of special status of Jammu and Kashmir, alleging that the armed forces in Kashmir entered houses at night and 'vandalized' them. She also alleged that four people were called to a military camp in Shopian and were 'interrogated'. She also claimed that a mic was placed in front of these people so that the entire area could hear their screams and be terrorized.

Later, Supreme Court's advocate Alok Srivastava lodged a complaint with Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, saying that the allegations of the former student leader of JNU were 'completely false and fabricated'. In his complaint, Srivastava said that Rashid's allegations are baseless as she did not present any 'voice recording' of the alleged torture nor gave the date and time of the incidents.

Apart from this, he also accused Rashid of 'deliberately spreading fake news with the intention of inciting violence in the country' and tarnishing the image of the Indian Army. Srivastava had said in his complaint that her action was intended to 'incite hatred towards the Government of India'. The police said that after receiving a complaint from Srivastava, the case was handed over to the Special Cell of Delhi Police for investigation.

In the FIR filed on September 3, Rashid was charged with sections 124A (sedition), 153A (inciting enmity between different groups based on religion, race, place of birth, residence, language), 153 ((wantonly giving provocation with intent to provoke cause riot),  504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of IPC.