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30-07-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
HC refuses to quash FIR against woman who reacted with laughing emoji to Operation Sindoor post
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to quash a first information report against a Pune woman for allegedly reacting with a laughing emoji to a message praising Operation Sindoor in her housing society's WhatsApp group, Bar and Bench reported. A bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Rajesh Patil dismissed the plea filed by the woman, Farah Deeba, observing that there was a prima facie case against her actions, which also included allegedly posting a WhatsApp status that was deemed offensive to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian flag. The bench said that her actions would attract provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to acts endangering the sovereignty, integrity and unity of India as well as promoting enmity between groups, Live Law reported. It also noted the woman's statement to the complainant that both her paternal and maternal families were from Pakistan due to which she described India as 'makkar', or deceitful. This showed the woman's 'mens rea' or guilty mind, Live Law quoted the bench as saying. The FIR was registered against Deeba based on a complaint filed by another resident of her society. Her posts had reportedly sparked unrest in the area, with residents staging a protest and demanding police action against the woman, Bar and Bench reported. The case was filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to acts endangering sovereignty and integrity, promoting enmity between different groups, imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration, intentional insult to provoke breach of peace and statements conducing to public mischief. Seeking a dismissal of the FIR against her, Deeba had submitted in her petition that she had not been in a stable mental condition when she made the posts. Her counsel said she had apologised and deleted the messages once she realised that they were not well received, Bar and Bench reported. The counsel added that she had already suffered for her actions professionally, having been terminated from her teaching job. The court rejected these arguments. 'The intention of the petitioner becomes an essential ingredient to be judged with the kind of language she has used for India,' Bar and Bench quoted the court as saying. 'More particularly when the whole country was feeling proud of our Army. She could have probably avoided reacting with a laughing emoji.' The court also observed that as a prudent and educated person, she should have considered the repercussions before posting such content. The bench added: 'In such a situation, she subsequently adopting a defence that, she has not realised those messages were controversial and posted them due to her deranged mental condition will not be helpful to her.' Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22. The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed in the shelling. The sides on May 10 reached an 'understanding' to halt firing
Hindustan Times
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
HC refuses to quash FIR against Pune teacher over Op Sindoor linked remarks
The Bombay high court on Tuesday refused to quash the first information report (FIR) registered against 46-year-old Farah Deeba, a Pune-based former teacher, for allegedly ridiculing India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the WhatsApp group of her housing society following Operation Sindoor. her neighbour told the police in a complaint. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC) Deeba's reference to India as 'makkar' (deceitful) and her connection with Pakistan through her parents' families who resided there revealed the mens rea (guilty mind) behind her alleged crime, the division bench of justices AS Gadkari and Rajesh Patil said while dismissing her petition. Deeba, a resident of Margosa Heights housing society in Pune's Mohammadwadi neighbourhood, worked as a school teacher. After the Indian armed forces launched 'Operation Sindoor' on May 7, targeting alleged terror camps in Pakistan, her housing society's WhatsApp group was abuzz with congratulatory messages for the armed forces and the central government. Deeba responded to these messages by posting a laughing emoji, followed by a video ridiculing Narendra Modi. She referred to India as 'makkar' and posted a burning Indian flag as her WhatsApp status, her neighbour told the police in a complaint. Based on the neighbour's complaint, an FIR was registered against Deeba at the Kalepadal police station in Pune under sections 152 (acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India), 196 (promoting enmity between different groups), 197 (making imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 353 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. Deeba then approached the high court for quashing the FIR, contending that she was not in a mentally sound condition at the time as the families of both her parents were from Pakistan. As soon as she realised that a few members on the WhatsApp group were offended by her messages, she immediately deleted them and apologised to the complainant, she said in her plea. She also lost her job as a teacher due to the controversy generated by the case against her, she mentioned. Additional public prosecutor MM Deshmukh opposed the petition, saying prima facie, there was enough material to make out the alleged offences and the investigation needed to be completed and taken to its logical end. The court accepted the prosecutor's contentions, saying the petitioner, being well-educated with a masters in English and a BEd degree, should have thought about the pros and cons of her actions before posting the videos and messages. 'Though the petitioner tendered her apology to the complainant, damage had already been caused by the petitioner's messages which were circulated,' the judges said. Her acts attracted the sections she was booked under while her reference India as 'makkar' and her admission about her parents' families hailing from Pakistan were indicative of her guilty mind, the court noted, dismissing her plea.
India Today
29-07-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Court rejects woman's plea to quash FIR over controversial messages post-Op Sindoor
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed a writ petition filed by Farah Deeba, a 46-year-old resident of Pune, who had sought to quash an FIR registered against her over controversial WhatsApp messages and status updates following Operation Sindoor, a recent Indian Armed Forces operation targeting terrorist launch pads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Rajesh S Patil observed that Deeba's actions, including a laughing emoji reaction to pro-military posts, a WhatsApp status video showing the Prime Minister riding a rocket alongside a burning Indian flag, and messages identifying herself with Pakistan while referring to India as 'Makkar,' reflected mens rea, or criminal court said, 'What is expected of a prudent person is that, before putting up any kind of message on social groups, a person like the petitioner—who is educated and a teacher by profession—should also think about the pros and cons which might occur due to sending online messages through her social media account (WhatsApp).' The FIR, filed at Kalepadal Police Station in Pune, invokes multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), 2023. The case emerged from a WhatsApp group named Sath Sath Margosa Ladies, comprising women residents of the Margosa Heights residential complex in to the complaint, after Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7, several group members expressed admiration for the Indian Armed Forces. Deeba allegedly responded with a laughing emoji, objected to the group being used for patriotic discussions, and later posted a video link from Facebook critical of the Prime Minister. She is also accused of uploading a WhatsApp status featuring a burning Indian flag and making disparaging comments against the lawyer, advocate Harshad Sathe, argued that Deeba was not mentally sound at the time of the incident, had removed the posts shortly afterward, and had issued an apology. He noted that she had already been dismissed from her teaching job and claimed procedural lapses in the issuance of notice under Section 41-A of the bench, however, found sufficient grounds for investigation, noting that the petitioner's conduct, especially in the immediate aftermath of a sensitive military operation, was capable of disturbing public sentiment and attracting penal consequences under to a recent ruling of the Allahabad High Court, the Bombay High Court reiterated that freedom of speech does not extend to derogatory commentary against the Prime Minister or Armed Forces when such speech could disrupt national harmony or incite court emphasised that quashing of criminal proceedings before the filing of a chargesheet is an exception rather than the rule, and that the present case did not warrant such the petition was dismissed, and the investigation against Deeba will continue.- EndsMust Watch
The Guardian
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Whipped in front of everyone': three women on being flogged by the Taliban
Three Afghan women who were brutally flogged in public by the Taliban after being accused of 'moral crimes' have bravely spoken out about the cruelty they endured. More than 1,000 people – at least 200 of whom were women – are now known to have been humiliated in public floggings since the Taliban's return to power in 2021, according to court records and media reports. The true numbers are probably much higher. Among those who were whipped are women accused of 'moral crimes', which include leaving home without a close male relative to act as a mahram (guardian), or being seen speaking to unrelated men. All three women who spoke to the Guardian and Zan Times, an Afghan news agency, said they had been forced to confess to alleged moral crimes before they were punished. With her husband working in Iran, 38-year-old Deeba* is the sole provider for her seven children. As a tailor, she sews men's clothes in her home and goes out alone to deliver them. In the past two years, she has been arrested twice by the Taliban's 'morality police'. The first time was when she was renting a sewing machine from a man she was not related to. She says she was beaten, called a 'prostitute' and spent four nights in jail. The second arrest happened three months later when she was sitting in a cafe charging her phone. She was wearing a long coat and a large shawl, but the Taliban 'vice and virtue' enforcers still questioned her. 'They said, 'Why are you unveiled? Why are you alone without a mahram?' I told them, 'The earthquake [Afghanistan was hit by several in 2023] has made it hard to go home. There's no electricity. That's why I came here to charge my phone and grab a sandwich.'' Her answer provoked the Taliban even further. 'They kicked the sandwich shop owner out of his own place and slapped him, shouting, 'Why did you let this woman into your store? What relationship do you have with her?' When I saw them treating him like that, I argued with them.' Two days later, she was arrested and taken into custody by the Taliban and accused of insulting the police, as well as being a woman without a mahram outside her home. She was held in prison for 20 days. 'There were 15 of us in one cell. Four beds; the rest slept on the floor. They weren't giving us food. The blankets were filthy. 'I asked for my phone to call home because my daughter was sick and didn't know I'd been arrested, but the Taliban refused. I screamed, begged. But instead they threw me into a solitary cell.' Deeba was brought before a Taliban court. No lawyer represented her. The judge convicted her of appearing without a male guardian and insulting religious scholars. She was sentenced to 25 lashes. 'They took me to a public place, covered my head, and whipped me in front of everyone,' she says. Deeba says she was then detained for another two days to ensure some of her wounds healed. Since returning home, Deeba says she has struggled with the humiliation of the public flogging and is on medication to cope with her trauma. 'When I was released, even my closest friends started treating me differently. They called me names and spoke about me with such disgust because they'd been told lies about what happened. 'It was just so hard. Unbearably hard. Can anyone understand what it's like to be slapped in front of a crowd, punched in front of people, covered up and flogged in public?' Sahar*, 22, was very sick last year. Her father worked in Iran and her mother ran a carpet-weaving workshop in a village in western Afghanistan. There was no one to take her to the clinic where two of her uncles were working. Her mother called her male cousin to drive her. The Taliban stopped their vehicle just before reaching the clinic and asked about their relationship. 'When we said we are cousins but we weren't married, they became aggressive. They beat my cousin, smashed our phones, and forced me to hide on the floor of the Taliban truck as they drove me to their station,' says Sahar. She says she was then taken to a detention centre. 'I was terrified, crying, and I couldn't breathe. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion 'I told them I was sick and asked for some medicine. That's when they slapped me and kicked me several times. One of them said, 'If you raise your voice again, we'll kill you and your cousin.'' Sahar says she was interrogated by a veiled woman. 'She asked who my cousin was; whether I was a virgin; whether we had a relationship. I said no. She warned me that I had to confess and if I didn't obey, I'd be tortured.' The next day, Sahar and her cousin were brought before a Taliban court, where she says she was forced to falsely claim she had a relationship with her cousin. She had no lawyer. Despite the presence of relatives who testified that they were family, the Taliban refused to recognise their relationship as mahram and permissible. 'They made me confess, in front of my mother, my uncles, that I had done something wrong. I didn't want to say it. But they hit me, threatened my cousin. I was terrified,' she says. Sahar says she was sentenced to 30 lashes and her cousin to 70. 'They used loudspeakers to announce our punishment. My little sister was there. She used to say I was her role model. I saw her crying in the crowd. That broke me.' After returning home, Sahar says she was forced to leave her village. 'After this happened, people's view of us changed completely. Even if 50 people didn't believe the accusation, 100 others did. That forced us to leave our home and move to the city.' A similar story is told by 18-year-old Karima* in another western province. In 2023, aged 16, she says she was travelling with her male cousin to buy sewing supplies for her mother when the Taliban stopped them. 'We were stopped on the road. The Taliban asked for our IDs. I told them he was my cousin, but they said, 'That's not a valid mahram. You don't have the right to be with him.' They arrested us on the spot.' She spent two months in prison and suffered panic attacks and hallucinations. 'I blacked out,' Karima says. 'When I woke up, my wrists were handcuffed and bleeding, and another prisoner told me they had tied me down and stepped on me.' Karima says she and her cousin were flogged in the main square of the city where they lived. She was given 39 lashes and her cousin received 50. They were then taken back to prison. 'They kept us for another week. They said we couldn't leave until the wounds healed. They didn't want anyone to see what they had done.' When she was released, Taliban officials told her she was banned from leaving the country: ''You're being watched,' they told me, 'You're not allowed to go abroad.'' However, like Sahar and Deeba, the humiliation of people staring at her and whispering about her when she went back to her home village forced her to move to a different city in Afghanistan. * Names have been changed to protect their identities
