New Delhi: Three Kashmiri students who have been charged for sedition for allegedly celebrating the Pakistani cricket team’s victory after a T-20 match in October this year continue to languish in jail. The three students – Arsheed Yusuf, Inayat Altaf Sheikh and Showkat Ahmed Ganai – are enrolled at the Raja Balwant Singh Engineering College in Agra and were arrested on October 27.
They were booked under Sections 124 A (sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 505 (1) (B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 66-F (cyber-terrorism) of the Information Technology Act for allegedly sending WhatsApp messages “against the country” after the match.
As their families appeal for justice in the hopes of getting a bail order for them, their application could not be heard in the Allahabad high xourt owing to procedural delays and lack of resources. Previously, the students did not get access to legal aid in Agra city, with lawyers allegedly refusing to represent those labelled “anti-national”. Following this, student bodies and volunteers arranged for legal aid in Mathura. Alongside their bail application, a transfer application to move the case from Agra is also pending and could not be heard for the fourth time in a row.
Speaking to The Wire, Madhuvan Dutt, the lawyer representing the students, explained, “Justice Suneet Kumar was hearing the petitions today [Thursday] after lunch. Applications were heard until article number 43 however, our article number was 76. So our application was not disposed of. It is likely to come up only around the 6th or the 7th of January.”
He added, “These delays are procedural, it is not only in this case but in all other cases too. In high court, bail applications are taking over one month to be disposed of, a lot of this legal burden is compounded with COVID. All litigants in UP are suffering with these delays. Three of our appeals for the transfer application could not be heard because there was no sitting judge. This delay is causing injustice for all litigants.”
The students have spent over 60 days in jail for cheering for the “wrong” cricket team. Students allege that the issue has not found representation on the agenda of any mainstream political parties as Kashmiri youth struggle to prove their innocence and allegiance to the state.
Also read: ‘We Are Fearing the Worst’: Families of Kashmiri Students Arrested After India-Pak Match
Manzoor Wani, a friend and mentor to the students, stated that other Kashmiri students at the college were facing harassment and threats post the arrests of the three students. “They feel that if they speak up or even give statements in the media, their careers will be over and their lives will be in jeopardy; the pressing of charges and the arrests, and more so the lack of legal recourse and its delays, have led to a chilling effect. This, despite the fact that they believe in the fact that posting on WhatsApp about Pakistan’s victory was in no way meant to offend anyone.”
Wani added, “No lawyer was willing to fight their case on the premise that they are anti-national, they were denied legal aid and their basic constitutional rights, we had to muster funds and efforts through the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) to be able to afford legal counsel.”
A bail plea is first made to a magisterial court in the district and then to a sessions court and subsequently to the high court following its rejection by the lower courts.
Amid the tedious legal processes, the families of the students are in deep distress as hope for their freedom is fading. Showkat’s sister Fancy Bano told The Wire, “We are suffering enormously, we want justice for him. I know for a fact that he has not done anything wrong and he has not done anything to deserve this.”
Their hope is fading amid the legal delays. She added, “We were hoping for a favourable decision, we have even gone on to state that if he has done anything wrong we would ask for forgiveness and issue an apology. The case against him is putting his future and our lives on the line.”
Their lawyer is consistently arguing that the sections invoked against the students were harsh. “In the Balwant Singh vs the State of Punjab, the Supreme Court ruled that mere words and phrases, no matter how distasteful, do not amount to criminal offence unless they are used to incite mobs for violent action. Moreover, Pakistan has not been declared an enemy country by the government.”