HC asks govt to respond on Gowhar Geelani’s plea to quash FIR

HC asks govt to respond on Gowhar Geelani’s plea to quash FIR

Srinagar: The J&K High Court has issued notice and directed the government to file objections after a fresh plea was filed by journalist and author Gowhar Geelani against the transfer and investigation of his case to Sadder police station.
Geelani while filing the fresh plea through his counsel Salih Pirzada questioned the order dated April 22 passed by the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, whereby the investigation of the case was transferred to Police Station Sadder.
It was submitted that since the FIR is registered for an offence under a special statue of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967, read with section 505 Indian Penal code (IPC), which is unrelated to the trappings of offences under the IT Act, therefore the FIR and the investigation lacks jurisdiction.
“Since the impugned FIR mentions no offending word that requires investigation and trial as such, the mobilisation of a criminal case on illusory grounds based on mere speculations is illegal and against the principles of criminal justice and as such the entire persecution being farcical and absurd cannot be countenanced under law,” counsel Pirzada had told the court.
The plea noted that the said order was against the tenets of law when already the Cyber Police Station had registered FIR under unlawful activities act against the petitioner which was challenge before this court.
The court of Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey while hearing the matter issued notice and directed government to file objections by May 28 on the issue.
The matter for now listed has been listed for arguments on May 28.
Gowhar Geelani had challenged the FIR under UAPA slapped against him on the grounds that the cyber police wing had no jurisdiction to investigate offences beyond the purview of Information Technology Act, 2000.

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