Delhi court to decide on sedition charge against Roy, Geelani

NEW DELHI - A Delhi metropolitan magistrate’s court is likely to decide Saturday whether criminal proceedings should initiated against hard line Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and writer-activist Arundhati Roy on charges of sedition for their alleged anti-India statements.

Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha, who pulled up the police for failing to submit proper status report on a complaint filed with them on October 28 by Sushil Pandit seeking registration of FIR against Roy and Geelani, reserved the order on the complaint filed with the court after hearing arguments of Pandit’s counsel.

Besides Geelani and Roy, the complaint sought prosecution of five others, including Delhi University professor S A R Geelani, who was acquitted in Parliament attack case, and Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a professor of Jammu and Kashmir University.

According to the complaint, the accused made the comments at a convention in New Delhi in October on ‘Azadi-The Only Way’. Hurriyat leader Geelani shared the dais with Roy and pro-Maoist leader Vara Vara Rao among others. The audience heckled Geelani. (ANI)