Bengaluru Student Faiz Rasheed Sentenced To Five Years Imprisonment For Celebrating Pulwama Attack

A special NIA court in Bengaluru sentenced Faiz Rasheed, the 21 year old engineering student who posted derogatory messages celebrating the Pulwama attack on social media platforms, to five year imprisonment.

Earlier this week, the Bengaluru court held that the evidence produced does prove that Rasheed had made posts celebrating the suicide attack on the CRPF jawans at Pulwama.

As reported by Live Law, the court observes that Rasheed made derogatory comments multiple times, and to all posts made by news channels on Facebook. The court also noted that the posts were all made intentionally as he was no ordinary or illiterate person but an engineering student and ‘felt happy about killing of the great souls’.

‘He celebrated the death of the great souls as he was not an Indian. Therefore, the offence committed by the accused is against this great nation and heinous in nature,’ remarked the court.

He has been convicted under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

Rasheed had commented on posts of various news channels, reportedly, saying "Ek musalman 40 par bhaari pad gaya Kashmir ka hero Allah Hu Akbar', 'ye tho mob lynching, ram mandir 2022, ka chota sa badla tha… trailer samajhna kyunki picture abhi bakhi hai chutiyo’, ‘how is the khauf Indian army??,’ among others.

He had also posted images, as per the report, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders with the words ‘Gali gali chor hai’.

As per the court, it was proved that Rasheed made the derogatory comments with an ‘intention to promote enmity between different groups on the ground of religion and committed an act that was likely to disturb public tranquility.

The court also noted that the comments posted showed that he supported or advocated the terror act committed by the terrorists against the Indian army with an intention to disrupt the sovereignty and integrity of India.