The reports suggest that a social activist from Kashmir filed a police complaint in 2010 following speeches by Roy and three others at a conference organised by a rights group.


New Dehli: The Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy faces prosecution in India for a speech about Kashmir she gave 13 years ago after a top official approved the move, local media reported on Wednesday.
A social activist from Kashmir filed a police complaint in 2010 following speeches by Roy and three others at a conference organised by a rights group, the reports said.
Roy, a fierce critic of India's policy in Kashmir, is accused of saying at the conference that the disputed Himalayan territory was not an integral part of India.
Under Indian laws, the state government's permission is needed for prosecution of certain crimes, including hate speech, sedition, and promoting enmity.
Vinai Kumar Saxena, the federally-appointed lieutenant-governor (LG), has allowed Delhi Police to prosecute Roy and Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain under laws relating to promoting enmity, making assertions prejudicial to national integration and causing public mischief, the reports said.
Another professor and a hardline Kashmiri separatist leader named in the complaint have since died.
The reports did not say why Saxena approved the prosecution after 13 years.
His office did not respond to calls and emails from Reuters requesting comment.
Roy, 61, won the Booker Prize for fiction in 1997. She is also an outspoken political and rights activist and regularly writes in Indian and foreign publications.
There was no reaction from her to the developments and she could not be reached for comment.
Although the case was registered before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government came to power in 2014, the sanction has once again stoked concerns about freedom of speech under Modi's government.
Opposition leaders and writers came out in support of Roy.
"It is obvious that the LG (and his masters) have no place in their regime for tolerance or forbearance; or for that matter the essentials of democracy," P. Chidambaram, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party who was India's home (interior) minister in 2010, posted on X.
Courtesy: Reuters

Pakistan strengthens ties with global financial institutions
- 19 hours ago

India reduces Russian oil purchases by 50pc after intense US pressure
- 27 minutes ago

Saudi Arabia’s comedy festival is no laughing matter
- 2 hours ago

Hania Aamir appointed as UN Women Pakistan’s National Goodwill
- 17 hours ago

Expelliarmus! How to enjoy Harry Potter while disarming J.K. Rowling.
- 17 hours ago

The disaster at the CDC, explained by its former boss
- 2 hours ago

Indonesia shaken by 6.7 magnitude earthquake
- 19 hours ago

Pakistan's exports in free fall: Textile exports plummet 2pc
- 19 hours ago

Nestlé to slash 16,000 job adopting AI, automation systems
- 18 minutes ago

The world is producing more food crops than ever before
- 2 hours ago

Gold expensive by Rs1,900 per tola today
- 20 hours ago

Forces conduct operations in KP, killing 34 Indian-sponsored Khawarij
- 18 hours ago