A 20-year-old engineering student who put up a derogatory post on the February 14, 2019 Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir has been convicted to undergo five years of simple imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000 by the special court for NIA cases on Monday, October 31, reported The New Indian Express.
The student has been identified as Faiz Rashid, a resident of HRBR Layout. Rashid had reportedly created a Facebook account just to post provocative posts on the terror attack. The Central Crime Branch (CCB) arrested Rashid from a bakery in Ramaiah Layout near his house. They had filed a complaint against him at the Banaswadi police station.
Rashid was pursuing his third semester in the Electronics and Communication branch from a reputed engineering college in the city. Since his arrest on February 17, 2019, Rashid is in judicial custody and has been lodged at the Parappana Agrahara central prisons.
"After his posts on Facebook, several users after criticizing the posts had tagged the Bangalore City Police. Fearing arrest, he deleted his Facebook account. His mobile phone which was recovered after his arrest was sent to FSL for analysis and the report was obtained. The same report was submitted along with the charge sheet," said an officer on part of investigations.
Rashid was booked under the following Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections: 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed, or giving false information touching it to screen the offender) and section 13 (advocates, abets, advises or incites the commission of any unlawful activity) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967.
