3 KASHMIRI STUDENTS HELD FOR SEDITION APPROACH HC FOR BAIL

PRAYAGRAJ: The three Kashmiri students of an engineering college in Agra, who were arrested on sedition charges in October for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans following Pakistan’s victory in the T20 cricket World Cup match against India, have directly approached the Allahabad high court seeking their release on bail. They said that the lawyers’ association in Agra had refused to represent them.

The trio - Arsheed Yusuf, Inayat Altaf Sheikh and Showkat Ahmed Ganai – was arrested on October 27, 2021 by Agra police.

Generally, the bail application is moved before the district court first, and in case of its rejection, the same is challenged before the high court with a request to release the applicant on bail.

Significantly, along with bail plea, the students also moved an application seeking transfer of their case from Agra to Mathura on the plea that “the entire bar association of Agra is not ready to appear on behalf of the applicants before the court.”

They were booked under Sections 124 A (sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 505 (1)(B) (with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66-F of the Information Technology Act for allegedly sending WhatsApp messages “against the country” after the match.

Seeking transfer of the case, an application filed by them took the plea that “if the case of the applicants is not transferred to Mathura district court, the accused/applicants cannot contest their case and also cannot take proper legal assistance, and in the absence of that, they would remain behind bars for an unlimited period.”

In their petition, it was claimed that the students were getting life threats if they tried to contact any member of the Agra Bar Association.