Delhi court permits police to withdraw sedition FIR against ex-JNU student Shehla Rashid

A Delhi court on Thursday allowed the police to close a sedition case from 2019 against former Jawaharlal Nehru University student Shehla Rashid, Bar and Bench reported.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Kumar Singh of the Patiala House court allowed an application by the Delhi Police seeking to close the case. The application said that Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, who had previously given sanction to prosecute Rashid, has now withdrawn it.

The police had in September 2019 booked Rashid on charges of spreading misinformation about the armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir, according to The Indian Express. The former JNU student had been booked for sedition, promoting enmity between different groups, giving provocation with intent to start riots, among other sections.

Rashid had alleged excesses by security forces in Kashmir against young persons in the aftermath of the Centre’s decisions to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories. Article 370 of the Constitution had granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

A lawyer named Alakh Alok Srivastava had filed a complaint against Rashid. He claimed that she did not provide evidence of alleged torture by security forces, and sought to malign the image of the Indian Army.

In September 2019, an additional sessions court had granted interim protection from arrest...

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