Criminal complaint filed against Arundhati Roy for 'dividing nation' with NPR remark

Taking action against activist Arundhati Roy, Delhi based lawyers, on Thursday, have filed a complaint against the writer for her comments on the National Population Register (NPR). One of the advocates - Rajeev Ranjan stated that Roy's comments were aimed at dividding the nation. Listing a host Indian Penal Code sections under which a criminal complaint has been lodged, Ranjan hoped that the police will punish her accordingly.

Lawyers file complaint against Arundhati Roy

"We have file a criminal complaint against Arundhati Roy and her classmates who wished to divide the nation at the Tilak Marg police station. Her statement is against the nation, public and the complaint is under section 295 (A)(Deliberate and malicious acts), 504 (Intentional insult to provoke), 53 (punishments), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and under National Security Act. This has been done so that police investigate into the statement s and punish her accordingly," he said.

SHOCKING: Arundhati Roy asks Indians to 'lie' in census over NPR, says 'give fake names'

Arundhati Roy on NPR

Earlier on Wednesday, Arundhati Roy claimed that the National Population Register (NPR) will serve as a database for the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and asked people to oppose it by being lying. In an open call to lie on NPR, Arundhati Roy made a public appeal to Indians to lie about their personal information to authorities. The writer urged people to not be truthful while addressing a protest gathering at Delhi University, against the amended Citizenship Act, NRC and now the NPR.

"Now what is NPR? NPR has happened before. In NPR, they will come to your house, they won't ask you anything, they ask you for your name and phone number. It is a database for NRC," she said. She added, " When they come to your house asking for your name, you give them some other name--like Ranga Billa, Kung-Fu Kutta, give your address as seven race-course road and let's fix one phone number. But we need multiple subversion. We were not born for lathis and bullets," she said.

'Cabinet has approved funds for census of India 2021 & updation of NPR': Prakash Javadekar

What is National population register?

The NPR, first prepared in 2010 and updated in 2015, is an identity database maintained of all the usual residents of the country and is prepared at the local, sub-District, District, State and National level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955. Any resident who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more, or intends to do the same has to mandatorily register in the NPR. The NPR updation, costing Rs. 3941 crore has been approved by the Union cabinet and will be prepared between April 2020 and September 2020.

READ | Union Minister Muraleedharan Says Stoppage Of NPR Update Will Deprive People Of 'benefits'

The Centre has stated that NPR is a self-declaration where no document, bio-metric, etc. required for it. The details required in the document are name, relationship to head of household, father's name, mother's name, spouse's name (if married), sex, date of birth, marital status, place of birth, nationality (as declared), present address of usual residence, duration of stay at present address, permanent residential address, occupation, educational qualification. The updation which has been clubbed with the 2021 census count has been stayed by West Bengal and Kerala government; Rajasthan has defied it and Telangana is mulling on it.

READ | Kerala Government Stops NPR Process After West Bengal, Claims 'apprehension Among Public'