Court to hear plea on Geelani,Roy sedition case

A Delhi court is likely to take a decision on March 10 on a plea seeking a direction to the police to file a chargesheet in a case lodged against hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, writer Arundhati Roy and four others in a case of sedition for their alleged anti-India speeches.

Complainant Sushil Pandit, who is dissatisfied with the police reports saying the probe against Geelani and others is still inconclusive, has filed an application seeking early conclusion of the investigation in the case.

"The investigating agency was required to submit its chargesheet within 90 days from the date of registration of FIR but till date no chargesheet has been filed nor have the police informed about the reason for delay," Pandit said in his plea before Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha.

"The police have not filed any report showing that they have arrested any of the accused or they have served any notice on accused persons to participate in investigations," the application added.

The complainant alleged the two probe reports were silent on the progress made by them in the investigation. The Magistrate, who is likely to hear the fresh plea on March 10, had earlier deferred the hearing on the complaint to May 5.

The police, which have filed two reports, had lodged the FIR in the case following a court order. The court had also clubbed three other complaints on the same issue against Geelani, Roy and others for making the alleged anti-India speeches.

Besides Geelani and Roy, the complaint sought prosecution of five others, including Delhi University professor S A R Geelani, who was acquitted in Parliament attack case, and Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a professor of Kashmir University.

According to the complaint, the accused had made the comments at a convention here in October last year on 'Azadi-The Only Way'. Geelani, leader of hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference, shared the dais with Roy and pro-Maoist leader Varavara Rao among others. Geelani was heckled by the audience.

The complaint filed under Section 156 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code in the court on November 1 had alleged the government miserably failed to initiate any action against the "culprits of the anti-India seminar and so a private complaint against them has been filed".

The Hurriyat leader had been asked by the police not to leave the national capital till further orders.