Ex-JNU student Rashid gets sedition case relief

NEW DELHI: Delhi's Patiala House court allowed Delhi Police to withdraw a sedition case against former Jawaharlal Nehru University student activist Shehla Rashid in connection with her tweets about the Indian Army in 2019.

The court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Kumar Singh on Feb 27 approved the application filed by Delhi Police, noting that Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena, who earlier granted sanction to prosecute Rashid, has now withdrawn it.

Rashid faced legal action over a series of tweets posted on Aug 18, 2019, in which she alleged that Army personnel tortured four men in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district, placing a microphone next to them so that the entire area could hear them scream and be terrorised, alleging excesses by the armed forces against children and youth in Kashmir Valley in the aftermath of the govt's decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status by modifying Article 370 and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories.

Delhi Police registered a sedition case against Rashid in Sept 2019, based on a complaint by Supreme Court lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava. The police registered an FIR under Sections 124A, 153A, 153, 504, and 505 of the Indian Penal Code.