Uttar Pradesh : Kashmiri student accused of celebrating Pakistan’s victory in cricket match released from jail

Three Kashmiri students, who were jailed a month ago in a sedition case for not getting bail despite getting bail from the Allahabad High Court, finally came out of jail on Monday evening.

Inayat Altaf Shaikh, Shaukat Ahmed Ghani and Arshid Yusuf were arrested on October 16 last year for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans over India’s defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the World Cup.

Nasir Khuhmi, spokesperson of the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Union, which is providing legal aid to the students, said, “They have suffered a lot, from fighting in the Agra Sessions Court to repeated delays in hearings. Eventually, they were released on Monday. The release got delayed due to lack of guarantors.

Let us tell you that in October last year, India lost against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup cricket match. It is alleged that the three Kashmiri students had raised slogans in support of Pakistan. A case was registered against him under sections of sedition, cyber terrorism and spreading social hatred. Since then he is in jail. In January, a charge sheet was presented against him.

The police booked him under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, caste, place of birth, residence), 505 (1) (b) (with intent to cause fear in public) and match. The latter filed a case under section 66F (punishment for cyber terrorism) of the Information Technology Act 2008 for allegedly sending messages ‘against India’ on WhatsApp.

Later, the Uttar Pradesh Police had also added Section 124-A (sedition) to the FIR. This was done after the Chief Minister of the state Yogi Adityanath said that those who celebrate the victory of Pakistan will face a sedition case. The case was registered on the complaint of local BJP leaders. Later these students were suspended. Initially, the students were denied access to legal aid in Agra because they were labeled ‘anti-national’, so lawyers were reportedly refusing to represent them.

After this, the student unions and volunteers arranged legal help for them in Mathura. All three also went to court to transfer the case from Agra to Mathura. At the same time, in his order granting bail to the three, Justice Ajay Bhanot had said that the court is directly considering the bail application, which is an ‘extraordinary circumstance’. The Allahabad High Court had granted bail to all three on March 30.