Delhi court grants interim protection from arrest to Shehla Rashid in sedition case

In a relief to Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement leader and activist Shehla Rashid, the Patiala House Court in the national capital has granted her interim protection from arrest in connection with an FIR lodged against her in a sedition case. The interim protection has been granted until November 5.

The Delhi Police had on Friday filed an FIR against Rashid for levelling false allegations against the Army on the micro-blogging platform, Twitter. Rashid was booked for sedition on a criminal complaint by Supreme Court lawyer Alok Srivastav who had sought the arrest of Rashid. The Special Cell of the Delhi Police lodged the FIR under sections 124-A, 153A,153, 504, 505 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

The activist had levelled a series on baseless and fake allegations on the situation in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. The Army has rubbished allegations of torture levelled by Rashid and in a statement had referred to her charges as "baseless".

She had claimed that Armed forces were “ransacking” houses of common people in Jammu and Kashmir and “picking up boys”. She had alleged that four persons were detained by Army personnel and tortured in Shopian. In a series of tweets, Shehla attributed to “people” as saying the Jammu and Kashmir Police department has no law and order situation.

“They’ve been rendered powerless. Everything is in the hands of paramilitary forces,” read a tweet by her. According to Shehla, while petrol and diesel are available in the region, “people have started running out of medicines now”.