An Indian court ruled on Saturday that award-winning author Arundhati Roy could face prosecution for allegedly speaking out on the disputed region of Kashmir, according to a report. A court in Delhi allowed the registration of a case against Roy and Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the Press Trust of India reported, without giving further details.
Roy, winner of the prestigious Booker award for her novel "The God of Small Things" in 1997, is a fierce critic of Indian policy in held Kashmir, where protests against New Delhi have claimed some 111 lives since June. The writer and social activist shared a stage with Geelani in October and backed the idea of "azadi" or freedom for occupied Kashmir, leading New Delhi police to look into charging her with sedition.
Originally, the Indian government was reported to be opposed to prosecuting her. There was no immediate reaction from the writer. In October, she said in a statement: "What I say (about Kashmir) comes from love and pride." "I said what millions of people here (in Kashmir) say every day. I said what I as well as other commentators have written and said for years," she said. Bharatiya Janata Party has called Roy's comments "seditious" and accused the Congress-led government of "looking the other way" by not taking any legal action against her.
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