Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has approved the prosecution of former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) leader Shehla Rashid Shora for tweets she posted against the Indian Army.
The approval is in relation to a 2019 First Information Report (FIR) filed against her under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), based on a complaint by an advocate named Alakh Alok Srivastava. The prosecution has been authorised under Section 196 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which relates to crimes against the state and criminal conspiracy to commit such crimes.
"Section 196 1(a) says no court shall take cognisance of any offence punishable under Chapter VI or under section 153A, of Indian Penal Code... except with the previous sanction of the central government or of the state government," a statement from the L-G's office read.
Shehla Rashid Shora is accused of using her tweets to incite enmity between different groups and disrupt the maintenance of harmony. In the tweets in question, dated August 18, 2019, she had accused Army personnel of entering homes, "torturing" locals, and engaging in other misconduct in Kashmir.
In another tweet, she had said, “In Shopian, 04 men were called into the Army Camp and ‘interrogated’ (tortured). A mic was kept close to them so that the entire area could hear them scream and be terrorized. This created an environment of fear in the entire area.” The Army denied the allegations.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said that the "nature of the case, location to which the tweets refer and making false allegations against the Army had made it a serious issue".
Shehla Rashid faces imprisonment for up to three years if convicted in the case. She is yet to react on the matter.
(With inputs from PTI.)