Prosecution against author and actividt Arundhati Roy now sanctioned by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena understand the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case registered in 2010 over her remarks on Kashmir.
Alongside Arundhati Roy, a former Professor of International Law in the Central University of Kashmir, Sheikh Showkat Hussain has also been charged under the stringent UAPA.
The FIRs against Roy and Hussain were registered following a complaint made by a social activist from Kashmir, Sushil Pandit on October 28, 2010.
“Roy and Hussain had allegedly made provocative speeches at a conference organised under the banner of ‘Azadi – The Only Way’ on 21.10.2010 at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi. The issues discussed and spoken about at the conference propagated the ‘separation of Kashmir from India’,” said officials from Governor office.
There were others also who were involved along with Roy and Hussain — former Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani, Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani and activiet Varavara Rao. All three of them died as the case moved.
The proceedings in case came to light when Sushil Pandit visited Metropolitan Magistrate Court in New Delhi to begin investigation in the 2010 case.
In 2023, the Raj Bhavan sanctioned to prosecute the accused under section 196 of CrPC for the commission of offences under different sections of IPC – 505 (statememts conducing to public mischief), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts predjudicual to maintenance of hormony), and 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration).
