Srinagar: A local court here on Monday directed police to file a status report on an application by J&K Students’ Association seeking registration of FIR against three persons accused of spreading communal disharmony.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar, Farooq Ahmad Bhat, issued the directions after hearing Nasir Khuehami, national spokesperson J&K Students’ Association through his counsel Advocate Amir Masoodi.
The court said: “The SHO Police Station Sadder Srinagar is directed to file the status report in light of the averments/ allegations put forth in the petition.”
It added that police shall submit report positively by or before 12 July failing which action under law shall be initiated against the SHO concerned.
The counsel for applicant pleaded before the court that one of the accused persons organised a protest and a press conference against a particular religious community accusing its members of kidnapping and converting young girls from one faith to another. He pleaded that another accused is an active twitter user and tweeted about the same incident and alleged that girls from a particular community have been “lured and married as third or second wives and maids”.
He submitted that the accused kept on spewing venom and tried to create communal disharmony “without verifying the actual facts of the incident.”
“All the three accused persons have a large public following and their statements have a tendency to influence a large public sentiment which can destroy the age-old brotherhood of our society,” he pleaded.
He added that after these statements by the accused, the students studying outside the union territory of J&K “are living under the spotlight of fear and are facing constant threat to their lives”.
“The court has in various pronouncements held secularism as part of the basic structure of the constitution of India and the statements of the accused persons attacked the very fabric of our society,” the counsel submitted before court.