Bengaluru. A special court has jailed a man for five years and fined him over derogatory posts about the Pulwama terrorist attack. The order was passed by Judge Gangadhara C M of the Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge (Special Judge for trial of NIA Cases).
According to the Central Crime Branch, Faiz Rasheed, who was a third-semester engineering student and resident of Kacharaknahalli in Bengaluru, was arrested over his February 14, 2019, Facebook posts that celebrated the deaths of 40 CRPF jawans in an attack on their convoy in Jammu and Kashmir.
Police had seized his mobile phone and got it examined by a forensic science laboratory as part of their investigation. They filed a chargesheet under Indian Penal Code sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 124A and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The court found him guilty under Section 153A and Section 201.
He was sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of three years and pay a fine of Rs 10,000 for the offence under Section 153-A of the IPC. He was sentenced to simple imprisonment for a period of three years and fine of Rs 5,000 for the offence under Section 201 of the IPC.
He was sentenced to five years and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 for the offence under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The sentences will run concurrently.
Since his arrest in February 2019, Rasheed has been lodged in prison as his application for bail was rejected. Many of the witnesses in the case were police personnel.
Rasheed had made 23 comments on the posts of various media outlets celebrating the terrorist attack and mocking the Army.
