Indian author to face prosecution

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena sanctioned the prosecution of Indian author Arundhati Roy under India’s strict Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) over her purportedly “provocative” speech during a conference on Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 2010, India Today reported. Saxena also approved the prosecution of former Kashmir law professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain, who also featured as one of the speakers at the same conference where Roy delivered speech. The conference also featured Kashmiri speakers Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani. According to officials from the governor’s office, also known as Raj Bhavan, the first information report against Roy and Hussain was registered after an order of a Metropolitan Magistrate court in New Delhi following a complaint by Sushil Pandit, in October 2010. Pandit had alleged that Roy and Hussain had made “provocative speeches at a conference organised under the banner of ‘Azadi – The Only Way’” in New Delhi, discussing issues that “propagated the ‘separation of Kashmir from India’”, according to India Today. Following the approval, former chief minister of IIOJK Mehbooba Mufti voiced her surprise over the news and said that the “Indian state continues to violate fundamental rights”.—Agencies