Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 28: In the face of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath threatening to add sedition law against those being arrested for celebrating Pakistan’s victory over India in the recent T20 Cricket World Cup match, three Kashmiri students held in Agra for the offence were attacked outside a court on Thursday.
The students, Arsheed Yousuf, Altaf Sheikh, and Showkat Ahmed Ganai, engineering students at the Raja Balwant Singh Management Technical Campus in Agra, who were arrested on Wednesday for supporting Pakistan cricket team against India, were roughed up when they were produced in front of a magistrate in Agra. Videos from outside the court show a group of men heckling the students and shouting slogans while the police try to escort them to a police vehicle and take them away. The group can be heard shouting “Pakistan Murdabad” (Down with Pakistan) and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” (Long live India).
The three students were charged with promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, and cyber-terrorism. And if Adityanath’s threat was carried out, they might also face sedition charges. A tweet from the UP Chief Minister’s office gave such an indication on Thursday, while the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti demanded their immediate release claiming that there was no case against them quoting statements from the college authorities.
The accused were arrested after a group of activists led by Gaurav Rajawat of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), BJP’s youth wing, barged into the college campus without permission and accused the college administration of “sheltering traitors.” Rajawat filed a complaint with the police outside the college campus following which they were arrested.
The college administration had denied allegations of pro-Pakistan slogans being raised in the college but suspended the students for “being involved in (the) indiscipline act of posting status in favour of Pakistan” after the India-Pakistan match. The college authorities have also criticized the BJYM activists entering the college campus without permission and creating a ruckus.
The students were arrested and taken to the Jagdishpura police station in Lohamandi and an FIR was registered under sections 153 A and 505 (1)(b) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66F of the IT Act 2008. The Engineering College authorities had suspended the three students from college hostel on Monday.
The UP Police have booked seven people in a total of five districts for allegedly raising Pro-Pak slogans or celebrating Pakistan’s victory over India in the T20 Cricket World Cup. Another student, Niyaz Khan, was arrested in Badaun for an alleged objectionable Facebook post after the match. “I love Pakistan. I miss Pakistan. Jeet Mubarak ho,” he reportedly posted. He was charged and sent to jail following a complaint from the right-wing outfit Hindu Jagran Manch.
Four more people have been arrested in the state for allegedly cheering for Pakistan India’s crushing loss in the cricket match; three in Bareilly and one in Lucknow. A man has also been arrested in the Jaunpur district of the state for allegedly using derogatory and abusive words against the country, media reports said.
The PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday demanded immediate release of Kashmiri students arrested from the Agra college and said, “Crackdown on Kashmiri students both within J&K & outside is reprehensible. Situation in J&K after two years of suppression should’ve been an eye opener for GOI & lead to course correction. BJP’s pseudo patriotism disregards the idea of India. Release these students immediately,” Mufti tweeted.
The former chief minister also tagged a media report quoting Agra college authorities, which claimed that there were no anti-national slogans raised on the campus. The report also claimed that the college authorities had complained against BJP workers for allegedly “putting pressure on them.”
Meanwhile, the UP chief minister said sedition law would be invoked against those celebrating Pakistan’s victory over India in the cricket match. The chief minister made the remarks in an interview to a news publication on Wednesday. The link to that interview was posted on the official Twitter handle of Adityanath’s office, with a line in Hindi talking about invoking sedition law against those celebrating Pakistan’s win. The CM made the statement the same day the three Kashmiri students were arrested in Agra.
“An FIR has been registered under sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) and 505 (Whoever makes/publishes/circulates any statement/rumour/report) IPC & IT Act’s Section 66F (Punishment for cyber terrorism),” Agra’s Superintendent of Police (SP) said. He also claimed that they were arrested after proper investigation.
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