Student sentenced to 5 yrs jail for celebrating Pulwama attack

Bengaluru: A special court here has sentenced a 22-year-old to five years simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 for making derogatory comments on Facebook posts after the terrorist attack on CRPF jawans in Pulwama in 2019.

The order was passed by Judge Gangadhara C M of the Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge (Special Judge for trial of NIA Cases).

The accused, Faiz Rasheed, was 19 and a college student at the time of the crime and has been in custody for three-and-a-half years.

The court found him guilty under Section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion,) and Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence).

However, the trial was not conducted on Section 124A (Sedition) and it was kept in abeyance as per the SC directions keeping it in suspension.

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.