The Uttar Pradesh Police have registered a first information report against an Aligarh Muslim University professor and her husband for allegedly sharing inappropriate social media posts on Jammu and Kashmir, PTI reported on Wednesday.
According to the police, in a post in early September Assistant Professor Huma Parveen referred to the disruption in communication networks in Jammu and Kashmir, whose special constitutional status was revoked the month before. Communications are not yet back to normal.
“Sach mein sampark toot jana kitna khatarnak aur dukhad hota hai, chahe Chandrayaan ho ya Kashmir [Really, losing connection is so dangerous and painful, whether it is from Chandrayaan or from Kashmir],” Parveen, whose husband Nayeem Showkat is a journalist based in the Valley, reportedly wrote after the Indian Space Research Organisation’s lunar mission lost contact with lunar lander Vikram on September 7.
Hindu Mahasabha leader Alok Pandey filed a complaint at the Gandhi Park police station on November 14, alleging that Parveen does not consider “Kashmir an integral part of India”. Parveen has been booked under sections of 153A (promoting enmity), and 505(2) (public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.
Showkat has been also booked under the same sections, reported The Times of India. According to the complainant, the journalist reportedly shared a post that read: “Toilet is on your mind and Kashmir is in encounter site.”
Another post by Parveen cited in the FIR is Mahatma Gandhi’s quote: “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy my body but you can never imprison my mind.”
According to the FIR, the posts propagated terrorism in Kashmir and could lower the morale of security forces deployed there.
Expressing shock, Parveen said she had shared a few posts written by others. “I was heartbroken as I was not able to contact my husband during the clampdown in the Valley,” she told The Times of India. “I have a young daughter and my emotions of losing connection with my family cannot be described in words.”
Senior Superintendent of Police Aakash Kulhary said a chargesheet would be filed after a detailed inquiry. The charges were filed on the basis of screenshots of the posts attached with the complaint, he added.
Aligarh Muslim University spokesperson Shafey Kidwai said the varsity will intervene if a chargesheet is filed. The professor’s posts were now open to scrutiny and the police will decide if they are objectionable, he added.
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