New Delhi: Aasiya Andrabi and two others hatched a conspiracy for the secession of Kashmir from India, a Delhi court said in its order convicting them for offences, including conspiracy to commit crime against the state and being members of a terrorist organisation under stringent anti-terror law UAPA.
Additional Sessions Judge Chander Jit Singh, had convicted Andrabi and her two associates Sofi Fehmeeda and Nahida Nasreen on Wednesday.
The court’s 286-page order, which was made available on Thursday, said, “The accused did conspiracy with each other for the illegal act of secession of Kashmir from India.”
The court noted that videos submitted by the National Investigating Agency clearly showed that they repeatedly claimed that Kashmir belonged to Pakistan and was under the forced occupation of India.
It said, “That Kashmir should be freed from Indian occupation so that it can become part of Pakistan. The material on record is rife with such speeches as well as various posts by all the accused especially of accused 1 (Andrabi).”
The court said that the Andrabi in her speeches and interviews clearly advocated and sought support of Pakistan to claim and propagate that Kashmir was never a part of India.
“It is clear that the accused are not merely stating that Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of partition rather the above discussion clearly spells out that this aspect is misused by accused persons to support, endorse and propagate that Kashmir is not part of India,” the court said.
The court also said that the ‘Dukhtaran-e-Millat’ (DeM), an organisation founded by Andrabi was involved in activities related to the secession of an integral part of India from India on the “pretext of claim of right to self determination”.
“To further these activities, various speeches were made as well as interviews given. There are multiple posts as discussed in preceding paragraphs mentioning the fact of organising/convening by accused persons to encourage and support this aim. The accused have attempted to create a facade that Kashmir is not part of India and is under illegal Indian occupation,” the court said.
It said that the accused pushed a narrative to promote that partition between the two countries, India and Pakistan, on the basis of two nation theory premised in religious background.
“It is the narrative of the accused that partition was on the ground of land for Hindus and land for Muslims. Therefore, Kashmir, having a population of about 90 percent of Muslim should go to Pakistan,” the court said.
The court pointed out that the accused claimed that they have the right to self-determination on the basis of resolution of the United Nations and also that Kashmir is already a part of Pakistan and India has its illegal occupation.
“It is clear that the accused do not bear an allegiance to the Constitution of India and they do not believe in the Constitution of India and are also not ready to uphold it and the sovereignty of India as they are seeking secession of an integral part of India,” the court said.
On Wednesday, the court found them guilty of offences under UAPA Sections 20 (punishment for being a member of a terrorist gang or terrorist organization), 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) and 39 (supporting a terrorist organisation).
The court also convicted the three under IPC Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 121A (conspiracy to commit offenses against the State).
The court has now listed the case on January 17 for hearing arguments on the quantum of sentence.
Andrabi and her two associates were formally charged with multiple offences under the stringent UAPA and the IPC in February 2021.
