E-Paper
B’luru: Engg student convicted for his comments on FB over Pulwama attack
He was sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for three years and was directed pay ₹10,000 fine for the offence under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code.
A special National Investigation Agency court in Bengaluru on Monday convicted a 21-year-old engineering student for “celebrating” the 2019 Pulwama terror attack by posting derogatory comments on Facebook. The accused was identified as Faiz Rasheed, a resident of Kacharaknahalli in Bengaluru.
He was sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for three years and was directed pay ₹10,000 fine for the offence under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code.
He was sentenced to simple imprisonment for three years and pay ₹5,000 fine for the offence under Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC. He was sentenced to five years and a fine of ₹10,000 was imposed on him for the offence under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The sentences will run concurrently. The trial was not conducted on Section 124A (sedition) and it was kept in abeyance as per the Supreme Court directions keeping it in suspension.
The order was passed by judge Gangadhara C M of the additional city civil and sessions judge (special judge for trial of NIA Cases).
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials said that Rasheed has been in jail since his arrest in February 2019 after his bail applications were rejected.
In 2019, 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the terrorist attack carried out by the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad. Following this, Rasheed had commented on several Facebook posts by news channels which detailed the Pulwama incident. The comments celebrated the attack, ridiculed the fallen soldiers, lauded the attackers and warned members of the Hindu community of ‘things to come’, an official in the know of the matter said. He also posted derogatory pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a picture of the suicide bomber responsible for the terror attack.
“The accused has not made derogatory comments one or twice. He commented on all the posts made by all the news channels on Facebook. Moreover, he was not an illiterate or ordinary man. He was an engineering student at the time of the commission of the offence and made the posts and comments intentionally on his Facebook account. He felt happy about killing the great souls and celebrated the death of the great souls as he as if he was not an Indian. Therefore, the offence committed by the accused is against this great nation and heinous in nature,” read the order.
Since he was 19-year-old at the time of committing the offence, Rasheed was eligible for probation. His advocate argued that he was below 21 years and had not committed any other offence and should be released on probation. The court, however, cited reasons to deny him probation and sentenced him to imprisonment.
“He commented more than 24 times and celebrated the death of the great souls as (if) he is not an Indian. Therefore, in the opinion of the court, if three years imprisonment is imposed for the offence punishable under section 153A and 201 of IPC respectively and five years’ imprisonment is imposed for the offence punishable under section 13 of UA (P) Act, it is proportionate to the crime committed by the accused,” the court said while deciding the quantum of punishment.
