Lucknow police registered a case of sedition against folk singer Neha Singh Rathore over a complaint regarding her social media post in which she alleged that the Modi government and BJP were politicising the Pahalgam attack.
The complainant, Abhay Pratap Singh, was quoted by news agency PTI as saying, “In this situation, singer and poetess Neha Singh Rathore, using her Twitter (now X) handle @nehafolksinger, made some objectionable posts that can adversely affect national integrity and made repeated efforts to incite one community against another based on religion.”
The complaint was registered at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow.
Based on the complaint, police registered a case against the folk singer on multiple charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including attempting to promote sectarian animosity, disturbing public tranquillity, and endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India, police said, adding that she has also been booked under the Information Technology Act.
While the BNS does not explicitly mention sedition as was specified in the now-scrapped Indian Penal Code Section 124A, the new criminal code deals with similar charges of endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of the country under Section 152.
In her X post dated April 23, Rathore alleged that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government was running politics on the grounds of caste and religion.
She alleged that the BJP government was “collecting votes in the name of Pulwama attack” and said that “the same will be repeated in case of Pahalgam attack.”
On April 26, she posted, “I will say this again and again that if Bihar elections are fought on the issue of Pahalgam, then Bihar’s own issues will be sidelined.”
