A Delhi court has allowed the withdrawal of a sedition case against Shehla Rashid after the Lieutenant Governor revoked prosecution approval. The case followed her controversial tweets regarding the Indian Army in Kashmir.
New Delhi: A Delhi court has permitted the withdrawal of a 2019 sedition case against former JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid Shora, following an application by the prosecution. The decision was made by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Kumar Singh on February 27 after the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) V K Saxena revoked his earlier approval for prosecution, police sources confirmed.
The Delhi Police filed an application seeking to drop the case, citing the LG’s order issued on December 23, 2024, which followed a recommendation from a Screening Committee. The application stated, “Lt. Governor, Delhi has approved the recommendation of the Screening Committee…”
The FIR against Shehla Rashid was lodged in 2019 at the Special Cell police station in New Delhi based on a complaint by a person named Alakh Alok Srivastava.
The case included serious charges such as sedition, promoting enmity between different groups based on religion, language, race, and inciting riots. These offenses carry a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The proposal for sanctioning Shora’s prosecution was initially supported by the Delhi Police and the Home Department of the Delhi government, but later, the LG decided to withdraw the approval.
The case stemmed from Shehla Rashid’s tweets on August 18, 2019, where she alleged that the Indian Army had entered houses and “tortured” locals in Kashmir. These claims were strongly denied by the Indian Army, which termed them as “baseless.”
Shora, a former leader of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), was accused of spreading misinformation and harming communal harmony through her statements.
With the LG’s decision to withdraw sanction, the Delhi Police has now dropped the case, marking the end of the legal proceedings against Shora in this matter.
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