Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, who has the control of Delhi Police and other administrative arms, on Friday sanctioned the prosecution of author Arundhati Roy under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for her alleged provocative speech at an event in 2010, according to Raj Niwas officials.
“Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has sanctioned the prosecution of Arundhati Roy and former Professor of International Law at Central University of Kashmir, Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain, under section 45 (1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,” a Raj Niwas official stated.
In October of last year, Saxena had already granted permission to prosecute Roy and Hussain under section 196 of the CrPC for offences punishable under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Arundhati Roy has been a vocal critic of the Modi government, criticizing it on multiple issues. “The issues discussed and spoken about at the conference propagated the separation of Kashmir from India,” the Raj Niwas official added.
Besides Roy and Hussain, other speakers at the event included the late Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, SAR Geelani (anchor of the conference and prime accused in the Parliament attack case), and Varavara Rao.
The complaint, filed by Kashmiri activist Sushil Pandit, was lodged under Section 156(3) of the CrPC before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in New Delhi, which directed the registration of an FIR on November 27, 2010.
It was alleged that Geelani and Roy strongly propagated that Kashmir was never part of India and was forcibly occupied by the Indian Armed Forces, advocating for the independence of Jammu and Kashmir from India. Recordings of these statements were provided by the complainant.
The fresh sanction under the UAPA came eight months after the L-G had granted permission to prosecute them under Sections 153A, 153B, and 505 of the Indian Penal Code. There were no immediate comments from Roy, the Booker Prize-winning author of “The God of Small Things,” or from Hussain.
The FIR was filed in November 2010 following the Metropolitan Magistrate Court’s order in response to Sushil Pandit’s complaint against speakers at a conference organized by the ‘Committee for Release of Political Prisoners’ under the banner ‘Azadi – The Only Way’. Roy and Hussain were accused of making provocative speeches at this conference on October 21, 2010, at LTG Auditorium in New Delhi, promoting the “separation of Kashmir from India,” according to officials.
Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani, who had been acquitted by the Supreme Court in the Parliament attack case, were also named in the FIR but have since passed away.
