Geelani booked for sedition, early arrest expected

Former DU lecturer SAR Geelani has been booked for sedition in connection with an event here, in which a group shouted slogans hailing Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru with police today saying an "early arrest" is expected in the case.
"An FIR has been registered against Geelani and other unnamed persons under Sections 124A (sedition), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of IPC in connection with the event at the Press Club in which anti-India sloganeering took place," DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.
Later, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said, "Police are gathering details so that those involved in the case can be arrested at the earliest."

The action against Geelani, who was acquitted for want of evidence in the Parliament attack case, comes even as Delhi Police today arrested the JNU Students' Union President in a sedition case in connection with an event at the varsity's campus against Guru's hanging.
The police today claimed to have registered the sedition case against Geelani and others after taking suo motu cognisance of media clips of the incident. "By the time we registered the case, we had received no complaints from any party," Narwal said.
Police also claimed that Geelani was booked as he is presumed to be the main organiser of the event. "Request for booking a hall at press club was done through Geelani's e-mail and the nature of the event was proposed to be a public meeting," Narwal said.

Calls and text messages to Geelani for his comments went unanswered.

"We are monitoring video footage and trying to ascertain the identity of the ones involved in anti-India sloganeering," Narwal said.
Later in the day, the police questioned Delhi University professor Ali Javed, the member of the club who had booked the premises for the presser, at the Parliament Street police station.
Javed had distanced himself from the event saying he does not approve of the sloganeering and he was not one of the organisers. Press Club of India yesterday issued a show-cause notice to Javed.
The police also asked Geelani to join the investigation at the earliest, a senior official said.

Geelani was acquitted by the Delhi High Court in October 2003, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2005 which at the same time observed that the needle of suspicion pointed towards him.