Court allows police to withdraw sedition case against Shehla Rashid

New Delhi: A court here has allowed the Delhi Police to withdraw a 2019 case of sedition against former JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid Shora for her tweets on the Army, police sources said. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Anuj Kumar Singh passed the order on February 27 on an application moved by the prosecution, which claimed that Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena had withdrawn his sanctions to prosecute Shora.

The case was filed for offences including sedition, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, language, race, place of birth, etc., and inciting riots. The charges carried a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. According to the application, the LG order was based on the recommendation of a screening committee.

"Lt. Governor, Delhi has approved the recommendation of the Screening Committee...' the application said.

The LG granted the approval on December 23, 2024.

The FIR against Shora was registered in 2019 at the Special Cell police station in New Delhi on the basis of a complaint by a person named Alakh Alok Srivastava.

Shora, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) leader, was accused of promoting enmity between different groups and indulging in acts prejudicial to harmony through her tweets, they said.

The proposal for the prosecution sanction was moved by the Delhi Police and supported by the Home Department of the Delhi government, the L-G office said.

Sora's tweets, dated August 18, 2019, allegedly accused the Army of entering houses and "torturing" locals in Kashmir.

The allegations were rejected by the Army as baseless.