Delhi Court grants interim protection from arrest to Shehla Rashid in sedition FIR

An Additional Sessions Court in New Delhi has granted interim protection from arrest to Shehla Rashid. The protection has been granted in connection with an FIR registered against her by the Delhi Police for her August 17 tweets on the state of Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370..The complaint to the Delhi Police Special Cell was made by an Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava and subsequently, an FIR was registered under sections 124A/153A/153/504/505 Indian Penal Code..Praying for relief from arrest, Counsel for Shehla Rashid submitted that the Rashid shall cooperate with the Delhi Police and shall join the investigation..The Prosecution submitted that no notice had been issued to Shehla Rashid yet and the Delhi Police would need a substantial time of six weeks to investigate the complaint..It was further informed by the Prosecution that Delhi Police had not received any complaint from the Indian Army with respect to Shehla Rashid’s tweets..After hearing the parties, Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Jain concluded that the matter required investigation and granted interim protection from arrest to Shehla Rashid. He thus ordered,.“Considering all these facts, I am of the view that the matter requires investigation in details, accordingly, renotify the matter on 05.11.2019. .Till then the accused shall not be arrested, however, she shall join the investigation as and when called by the IO”.In her series of tweets, Rashid claimed that the armed forces were torturing civilians and ransacked houses in Jammu & Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India..Senior Advocate Satish Tamta with Advocate Sarim Naved appeared for Rashid..Special Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmed appeared for State..Read Order:.Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.