Govt: No sedition charges against Geelani & Arundhati

A week after Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and writer Arundhati Roy allegedly made anti-India statements at a seminar in Delhi, the government has decided not to file a case against them.

Senior officials in the government said though legal experts in the Delhi Police had suggested a case could be registered against Geelani and Roy, the Union home ministry decided not to do so. Government sources said that filing a case would not only give unnecessary publicity to both but could also be used by separatists in the Kashmir valley.

“We have decided to ignore both of them. We are not registering cases,” a senior government officer said.

Geelani had asked the people of Jammu and Kashmir to boycott the three interlocutors appointed by the Union government.

“Nobody should talk to them till the time the government accepts our demand for self-determination. There is no sincerity in these talks and it is only an attempt to buy time by the state machinery,” Geelani had said.