NEW DELHI: Delhi Police is likely to file a charge sheet next week in a case registered against author Arundhati Roy and a former professor in Kashmir under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their alleged provocative speeches in 2010, official sources said on Tuesday.
Roy and former Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain were booked for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches at a conference organised under the banner of ‘Azadi - The Only Way’ at LTG Auditorium, Copernicus Marg on October 21, 2010.
The FIR was registered at Tilak Marg Police Station on a complaint made by Sushil Pandit, a social activist from Kashmir, following the orders of the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, New Delhi. The case was later transferred to the Delhi Police Crime Branch for further investigations.
The Crime Branch has compiled a thousand-page charge sheet against Roy and Hussain, supported by videos and forensic evidence.
Eyewitness accounts and forensic reports on social media videos are included. Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena sanctioned their prosecution under Section 45 (1)
of UAPA.
Last October, they were sanctioned for offences under IPC Sections 153A, 153B, and 505. Sedition (Section 124-A) was also invoked but action was suspended following a 2022 Supreme Court directive to re-examine sedition laws before taking
coercive measures.