On June 7, Kishtwar police in Jammu and Kashmir registered an FIR against three persons over Facebook posts supporting former BJP Spokesperson Nupur Sharma.

They were booked under relevant sections of the IPC, and IT Act for ‘spreading communal disharmony’ and ‘creating wedge among communities’. After the FIR was registered, Kishtwar Police issued a warning to the general public, advising them to refrain from making any such comments on social media platforms.

The FIR no 132/2022 was registered under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66C of the Information Technology (IT) Act at Kishtwar Police Station and the cyber cell of Kishtwar police. Police said that the cyber cell is monitoring social media actively only the subject.

In a Facebook post, Kishtwar police said, “The general public is hereby advised to refrain from making any comment in verbal or on any social media account and platform having the potential to hurt the religious sentiments of any class/community and disturb peace and tranquillity in the area. Any such person doing so shall be dealt with strictly under the law without any fail. Case FIR 132/2022 under relevant sections of law has been registered at PS Kishtwar and the cyber cell of Kishtwar Police is monitoring the activity on social media platforms regarding the subject. We appreciate the cooperation of the general public in maintaining communal harmony.”

According to media reports, the three persons booked by Kishtwar Police are BJYM State General Secretary Ashish Sharma, IKJUTT leader Er. Saparsh Parihar and VHP activist Anshuman Rathore. Reportedly, they had posted only the words “I stand with Nupur Sharma” on social media, which was deemed objectionable by Muslims and the police. The media contacted Rathore to confirm if FIR was registered against him, to which he said Kishtwar Police had not contacted him yet. However, he added, “I am getting a lot of threat calls from across the state for supporting Nupur Sharma. I do not have many details if any case has been registered against me or not. It will be better if you contact the Police.”

Quoting senior officials of Kishtwar Police, Early Times stated that the posts were deleted after the public outrage. Notably, the Police took action after various Muslim leaders, organizations, etc., called the DC of Kishtwar district and urged him to take action against them for allegedly hurting ‘Muslim sentiments’ by supporting Nupur Sharma. “We are recording the statement in the case- law will take its own course”, the police told the media.

Speaking to the media, Ashish Sharma said, “I only wrote ‘#IStandWithNupurSharma’ on Facebook. There was nothing else. There was nothing wrong with my post. However, some people took screenshots of the post and approached DC against me. We have been raising voices against the atrocities on Hindus in the valley and this is the reason my post was used against me.” Sharma is getting regular threats not only from the Kishtwar district but from Kashmir as well.

The media tried reaching out to Kishtwar Police but could not connect.

The controversy around Nupur Sharma’s remarks

On May 26, Nupur Sharma participated in a debate on Times Now, where she retaliated against the Muslim panelist who was continuously abusing Bhagwan Shiv. Her remarks were taken out of context by the likes of Alt News’ Mohammed Zubair, and he started a campaign against her. Several Islamists and liberals chipped in, and the whole controversy swirled into international propaganda against India after an online campaign ran for 2-3 days on Twitter and other social media platforms. In the end, BJP suspended Nupur Sharma pending an inquiry, but the threats and statements against Sharma and India did not stop. In the latest updates, the terror organization Al-Qaeda has issued a threat to India over Sharma’s remarks.

References:

opindia.com