The Gwalior bench of Madhya Pradesh high court on Wednesday issued show cause notice to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union President Kanhaiya Kumar on a defamation petition filed by a Gwalior based advocate over alleged anti-military remarks made by him at a students' gathering on women's day.
Justice DK Paliwal of Gwalior bench issued notice to him under section 500 (defamation) of Indian Pena Code (IPC) while hearing a Public Interest litigation (PIl) filed by advocate Awadhesh Singh Bhadoria.
The JNU leader has been asked to submit his reply within four weeks. “My brother is in Indian army posted at Kashmir, my father-in-law was posted in Kashmir, more people from my family were posted in Kashmir and it is a matter of proud for us i.e. Kanhaiya's remarks on army in Kashmir not only hurts my sentiments and is also defamatory,” Bhadioria said.
“No matter how much you try to stop us, we will speak up against human rights violations. We will raise our voice against AFSPA. While we have a lot of respect for our soldiers, we will still talk about the fact that in Kashmir women are raped by security personnel,” Kanhaiya reportedly said while addressing students at a women's day march on March 8.
“During war in Rwanda 1000 women were raped. In Africa during the ethnic conflict, when military attacks other group firstly their women were raped. You take example of Gujarat, women were not just killed but were raped first," Kanhaiya had purportedly said at the event.
Advocate Bhadoria had sent him a legal notice seeking apology on the remarks. "When he did not respond to my notice I filed a PIl before the court," said Bhadoria.