Three Kashmiri students, who were jailed under sedition and cyber terrorism in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, are yet to come out of the prison after the passage of a week as no local resident is ready to sign the surety bond, their lawyer told the media.
Three students, all in their 20s, were arrested on 28 October 2021 after a complaint against them for rejoicing the victory of Pakistan over India in the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. They were granted bail by the High Court of Allahabad on Wednesday.
Showkat Ahmad Ganai, 21, an engineering student in his final semester, was detained along with two of his college friends, Arshad Yousaf and Inayat Altaf Sheikh, for allegedly putting up a “celebratory WhatsApp status” and “shouting pro-Pakistan slogans” after the cricket match. They were studying at Raj Balwant Singh College.
Madhuvan Dutt, students’ counsel, said that to facilitate the immediate release of the trio either the families would have been in a position to submit cash surety or the surety bond is to be signed by some local resident of the state of Uttar Pradesh. “We got the certified copy of the bail order yesterday [Monday] that has been filed before the magistrate court today. The magistrate court will fix the surety amount,” Dutt told the Srinagar-based news portal The Kashmir Walla.
He added: “the problem [is that] the family members of the trio are very poor. —KMS
