FIR against Goa professor for comparing women wearing mangalsutra to chained dogs

An FIR has been lodged against Shilpa Singh, an assistant professor at a Goa law college, for allegedly outraging religious feelings of Hindus with malicious intention. The case was filed on a complaint by Rajiv Jha, of Rashtriya Hindu Yuva Vahini’s Goa unit.

In the complaint, Rajiv Jha referred to a Facebook post by Shilpa Singh, who teaches Political Science at Panaji’s VM Salgaocar College of Law, on April 21 in which she had challenged the patriarchy and belief by comparing ‘mangalsutra’ to a “chained dog”.

“The accused person having a Facebook profile in the name of Shilpa Surendra Pratap Singh knowingly uploaded a post through the Facebook account in the public domain with deliberate and malicious intention outraged religious feelings of the complainant, thereby insulted religious belief, thus committed an offence under section 295 A IPC,” Zee News quoted the FIR as saying.

Student wing ABVP had complained that Shilpa Singh promotes “socially hateful thoughts about a particular religion” and had sought her termination.

The college refused to act on ABVP’s complaint stating that it did not have the locus standi to raise objections against her teaching. It also refused to issue a termination order against Shilpa Singh.

Rajiv Jha has said that “If she has thoughts (on religion), she should keep it to herself, and not publicise on social media. She is a professor; if this is what she writes here, I wonder what she must be teaching her students,” he said.

Shilpa Singh has been booked under IPC Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), Jha, a Ponda resident, has been booked under 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (insulting modesty of a woman).

Later on, Shilpa Singh posted an apology on Facebook calling herself as ‘intellectual and feminist’ on November 8 regarding her post on Mangalsutra. In her Facebook apology, she wrote,” I wish to express my regret to my fellow women if any of my Facebook posts have hurt and offended them. I am aware that one of my Facebook posts was in the eye of the storm due to my personal views on Mangalsutra and Burqa, and it was taken totally out of context”.