A Bengaluru court has sentenced a person to five year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 25,000 for Facebook posts celebrating the Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. The special court judge Gangadhara C M convicted Faiz Rasheed, a resident of Kacharakanahalli in Bengaluru City, for the offences under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and Section 13 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Faiz Rasheed was a third year engineering student in 2019. After the Pulwama attack on February 14, 2019, he had posted certain comments on the news links hosted by various channels and websites. In these comments he had posted pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders with derogatory comments. He had also posted a photo of a ‘suicide attacker’ with a rifle in his hand. The city police had registered a suo motu case and arrested Faiz. He had been in judicial custody since then as the court had rejected his application for bail.
The special court found that the accused had made derogatory comments with an intention to promote enmity between different groups on the ground of religion and committed an act prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony among various groups. The court also noted that the accused had deleted the posts with the intention to cause disappearance of evidence and screen himself from legal punishment.
On charging him under Section 13 of the UAPA, the court said that the comments posted by the accused showed that he supported or advocated the terrorist act committed by terrorists against the Indian Army with an intention to disrupt the sovereignty and integrity of India and with an intention to cause disaffection against India.
“The prosecution has proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the accused has committed the offences punishable under section 153A and 201 of IPC and section 13 of U A (P) Act with cogent and convincing evidence,” the court said. The court has not conducted trial insofar section 124A of IPC (sedition) since the Apex Court has directed all the courts to keep trial in abeyance till final verdict.