New Delhi, November 27
A Delhi court today directed the Delhi Police to register a case against noted author and activist Arundhati Roy, Kashmiri separatist hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani and five others for making alleged anti-India statements at a seminar held here on October 21.

The court’s order is a snub for the Delhi Police, and to some extent the Ministry of Home Affairs, which had also earlier rejected demands for filing cases against the separatist lobby, as it had contended that no offence was made out against Roy, Geelani and others. Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumar Bagha brushed aside the status report of the Delhi Police and said there was prima facie adequate evidence against the accused.

The court asked the police to probe the complaint filed by a private petitioner, Sushil Pandit, on October 28 and file a status report on January 6, 2011, where the matter would come up for hearing.

Pandit had filed a complaint in the court and asked for directions to police to register a case under Sections 124 (A) (sedition), 121 (raising war against India), 153 (A), 153 (B) and 295 (spreading hatred and animosity between communities and groups) of the IPC.

Pandit said it was outrageous to see police taking no action despite Roy and Geelani alleging that India was an “occupying power” which was at war with its minorities and had taken control of the last parts of land by force.

S.A.R Geelani, who was acquitted in Parliament attack case, and Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a political commentator and professor of Jammu and Kashmir University, are the other accused in the complaint.

A senior police official told The Tribune that they would be registering a FIR but said it was unlikely that they would be making any arrest soon. The Sections under which Pandit had filed his complaint against Roy and others are serious and non-bailable.