Madri Kakoti, an assistant professor at the University of Lucknow and known online as the satirist Dr Medusa, has been booked over her social media comments related to the Pahalgam terror attack.
An FIR was registered at Hasanganj police station following a complaint from Jatin Shukla, a postgraduate student at the university and a member of ABVP. The case includes charges under BNS sections 197(1), 152, 302, 352, 353(2), and 196(1)(a), along with provisions of the IT Act.
Shukla alleged that Dr Medusa’s posts threatened national integrity and public order, citing her repeated use of the term “saffron terror” and noting that one of her posts was shared by a Pakistani social media account, the News Minute reported.
The University of Lucknow has not yet released an official statement regarding the FIR filed against the assistant professor.
In her post, the satirist criticized how the media and the government responded to the Pahalgam incident. “Twenty-seven ordinary Indians, people like you and me, were killed. The media was busy chasing TRPs, and no serious questions were asked of those in power. A major lapse in internal security went unnoticed, and the home minister remained clueless,” TNM reported.
Meanwhile, in a statement to Newslaundry, the complainant Jatin Shukla accused individuals with Leftist ideologies of trying to divide both society and the student community. He claimed they were politicizing the issue amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, and stated that the FIR was filed to prevent such actions by any student or professor in the future.
The Pakistani social media account cited in Shukla’s complaint is the same one that had previously shared remarks by Bhojpuri singer Neha Singh Rathore. Rathore was booked on Sunday under 11 different charges, including section 352 after the account reposted her video in which she criticized the Narendra Modi government’s response to the Pahalgam attack and alleged that the Prime Minister would now campaign in Bihar using the incident for political gain.