Delhi LG VK Saxena nod to prosecute Arundhati Roy, others in UAPA case

Booker-winning author Arundhati Roy

Delhi lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena on Friday accorded sanction for prosecution under Section 45 (1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Booker-winning author Arundhati Roy for an alleged provocative speech made in 2010, officials aware of the matter said.

The LG also granted sanction to presucute under the same provisions Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a former professor at the central university of Kashmir.

The first information report (FIR) in the case was registered on November 28, 2010 on the directions of the metropolitan magistrate for the offences of sedition, promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and language, with imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration, officials at the LG secretariat said.

“As per the FIR, besides Roy and Hussain, the then chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Syed Ali Shah Geelani, former Delhi University professor Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani and Maoist sympathiser Varvara Rao, who is also an accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, were present at a conference organised by ‘Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP)’ under the banner of ‘Azadi - The Only Way’ on October 21, 2010 at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi,” one of officials said, asking not to be named.

In October last year, the LG granted sanction under Section 196 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to prosecute them for commission of offenses punishable under Sections 153A, 153B and 505 of the Indian Penal Code. “When the Delhi Police recently submitted its proposal to grant permission of prosecution sanction under section 45 (1) of UAPA, it was granted as per the norm,” he said.

Section 45 (1) bars a court from taking any cognisance of the offence under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, without the previous sanction of the central or the state government, as the case may be.

The case was also registered under Section 13 of the UAPA, which deals with punishment for unlawful activities. It states that whoever takes part in or commits or advocates, abets, advises or incites the commission of any unlawful activity, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.

A senior Delhi Police officer said that Roy and Hussain allegedly made provocative speeches at the 2010 conference.

“Sushil Pandit, a social activist from Kashmir, had filed a complaint at Tilak Marg police station on October 28, 2010, against various participants for allegedly delivering provocative speeches in public. The issues discussed and spoken about at the conference propagated the ‘separation of Kashmir from India’. The transcripts of speeches given by the speakers were also submitted. Two exhibits i.e. one CD and DVD were forwarded on January 12, 2017, for forensic examination at computer division of CFSL, which opined that CD/DVD was found to be logically functional and physically undamaged,” the police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The officer said that it is mandatory to get an approval from a review committee before getting a prosecution sanction from the LG under section 45 (1) of the UAPA. “The committee, headed by a judge in the rank of district judge and above, makes an independent review of the evidence gathered in the course of investigation and then makes a recommendation for that that. Once we got the recommendations from the review committee, we sent the proposal to the prosecution sanctioning authority, which is the LG and got his approval,” he said.

To be sure, Section 45 (1) of UAPA mandates that no court shall take cognisance of any offense under chapter 3 (dealing with unlawful activities), chapter 4 (dealing with terrorist offenses), and 6 (dealing with terrorist organisations) without the prior sanction of the competent authority (either central government or state government depending on case-to-case basis).

Two accused in the case, Sayed Ali Shah Geelani and Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, have died during the pendency of the case.

Roy,62, is an Indian author best known for her novel The God of Small Things (1997), which won the Booker Prize for fiction the same year and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. She is also a political activist involved in human rights and environmental causes.

According to a senior Delhi Police officer, barring this case, no case is pending against Roy or Hussain.

Roy and Hussain could be reached out for their comments.

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