Jaipur/Shimla, Feb 17: Four female paramedical students of Kashmiri-origin have been slapped with sedition charges after being suspended from a private institute here for allegedly celebrating the Pulwama attack by posting “anti-national” messages on an instant messaging app, officials said Sunday.
The second-year students of the National Institute of Medical Science (NIMS), Talveen Manzoor, Iqra, Zohra Nazir and Uzma Nazir, were suspended for posting on WhatsApp a picture in which they were purportedly seen celebrating the terrorist attack in Kashmir that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.
The picture soon went viral, prompting the university administration to take action.
In the suspension order, the NIMS registrar said, “You have posted an anti-national message on your WhatsApp for celebrating killing of Pulwama terrorist attack martyrs. The university will not tolerate and strictly condemns such activities. The act is grave and serious in nature.”
Later, a case was registered against the four students following a complaint by the university administration, a police official said.
The students were booked under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity) and relevant provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act. Senior officials are investigating the matter and appropriate action will be taken thereafter, SP (Rural) Harendra Kumar said.
Meanwhile, a Kashmiri student of a private university in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan district was “rusticated” and later arrested for allegedly making anti-national remarks on social media, police said Sunday.
Tahseen Gul of Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar was arrested Saturday as he had made some “anti-national” remarks on photo-video sharing app Instagram, Baddi Superintendent of Police Rohit Malpani said.
He was studying at the Chitkara University located on Pinjore-Nalagarh national highway in Baddi tehsil of Solan district.
The Kashmiri student allegedly glorified suicide attacker Adil Ahmad Dar, who was behind the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed last Thursday.
A case was registered on the basis of a complaint by the university administration, a police official said.
In the complaint, Dean Administration, Chitkara University, Col AK Chauhan (retired) alleged that Gul posted some anti-national remarks on social media “creating a tense situation” in the campus, the police official added.
The Baddi SP told PTI that the Kashmiri student was “rusticated” by the university and was further handed over to the police for legal action.
Subsequently, he was arrested and a First Information Report (FIR) under section 153 B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against him at Barotiwala police station, he said.
The matter is under investigation, the SP said.
