4 Months in Jail: Kashmiri students in custody for Pak win celebration

Ground Report | New Delhi: Kashmiri students in custody; The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday filed a charge sheet on sedition charges against the three Kashmiri students, who were arrested for allegedly celebrating the victory of the Pakistani cricket team against India in the T20 World Cup held in October 2021.

Kashmiri students in custody

According to the police, the T20 World Cup cricket match was held in Dubai in October last year. By virtue of that, there was a match between India and Pakistan on October 24, in which India lost. The chat and WhatsApp status of three Kashmiri students studying at Raja Balwant Singh RBS Management Technical Campus about Pakistan's victory went viral on social media. After that, the school management suspended him.

Three youngsters namely Arshid Yusuf, Inayat Altaf Sheikh and Sokat Ahmed Ghani celebrated Pakistan's victory in the T20 Cricket World Cup match held in Dubai.

The defence lawyer Madhuvan Dutt told The Wire, “This is outside the jurisdiction of the court," he said. “Taking approval from the state or central government is mandatory. The police investigation is incomplete despite taking custody of the students for 90 days.

Chaturvedi added that, in the absence of prior government permission required by section 196 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the court cannot take cognizance of the police charge sheet. “The charge sheet is part of the investigation, and in this case, the investigation is incomplete even after 90 days in detention, so my clients are eligible for mandatory bail,” he said.

He further added "The magistrate is not empowered to know; however, the magistrate, overruling our objection, took notice of the charge sheet without sanction. Our demand for a default bond statement, which is normally called a statutory bond statement under 167 sub-clause 2 of the CRPC, has been rejected.  At present, the students have been remanded to judicial custody wherein they have been kept unlawfully. This is subject to a challenge before the high court.”

Immense trauma of family members

Speaking to The Wire, Arshad's uncle Najeeb said: "We are suffering enormously - his family is going through immense trauma. Arshad was our only hope, his mother is a single mother with two sisters. We cannot cope with the processes and the costs.”

The Kashmiri students, who were studying at Raja Balwant Singh (RBS) Engineering Technical Agra, were arrested after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers filed a complaint against them with the police.

“Students did not shout pro-Pakistan slogans,” BSKBS Kushwaha, principal (academician), of the university told the Times of India, adding the registration of an FIR against the students based on a complaint from an outsider and without consulting to university authorities is wrong.”

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