Delhi L-G gives prosecution sanction against Arundhati Roy under UAPA

The FIR in the matter was registered on a complaint made by Sushil Pandit, a social activist from Kashmir, on October 28, 2010.

New Delhi: Internationally acclaimed writer Arundhati Roy and a former Kashmiri professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain will face trial under UAPA in a case of making provocative speeches in 2010 with Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena according sanction for prosecution under anti-terror law, officials said on Friday.

The fresh sanction to prosecute the duo under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act came eight months after L-G granted permission to prosecute them under Sections 153A, 153B and 505 of Indian Penal Code. There were no immediate comments from Roy, the author of The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize, or Hussain.

The FIR was filed in November 2010, after an order by the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, New Delhi following a complaint by one Sushil Pandit against speakers who delivered "provocative speeches" in a conference organised by 'Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) under the banner of 'Azadi - The Only Way’.

Roy and Hussain were accused of making provocative speeches at the conference on 21 October, 2010, at LTG Auditorium in New Delhi. The issues discussed and spoken about at the conference propagated the “separation of Kashmir from India”, officials said.

Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and a Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani, who were acquitted by the Supreme Court in Parliament attack case, were also named in the FIR but passed away.

"Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has sanctioned the prosecution of Arundhati Roy and former Professor of International Law in Central University of Kashmir, Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain, under section 45 (1) of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the case," a Raj Niwas official said.

In October last year, the L-G had granted sanction to prosecute them under section 196 of CrPC for commission of offences punishable under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.