Sultana’s original post, written in Assamese in June 2017, translates to: “Today I participated in Pakistan’s joy by eating beef. What I eat is my tongue’s choice. On reading the word beef, please don’t start a conspiracy and reveal your own nature.” Sultana’s original post, written in Assamese in June 2017, translates to: “Today I participated in Pakistan’s joy by eating beef. What I eat is my tongue’s choice. On reading the word beef, please don’t start a conspiracy and reveal your own nature.”

The Assam police on Wednesday registered an FIR against a Gauhati University research scholar over a Facebook post she put up two years ago, allegedly about the consumption of beef.

The post, which the student deleted soon after it was posted, has resurfaced on social media platforms.

Rehana Sultana (28) was booked under sections 153A of the IPC and section 67 of the IT Act, said a source. DCP, Guwahati West, K K Chowdhury, told The Indian Express, “We have registered a suo motu case. It is an old post but we took cognizance as it has surfaced again.”

Sultana’s original post, written in Assamese in June 2017, translates to: “Today I participated in Pakistan’s joy by eating beef. What I eat is my tongue’s choice. On reading the word beef, please don’t start a conspiracy and reveal your own nature.”

Speaking to The Indian Express, Sultana said, “There is a controversy going on that I have written this post on this Bakrid. But I had written it over two years, back in June 2017, and then deleted it soon after my comment was misrepresented and people started targeting me. On June 19, 2017, I had also written a clarification, stating that my satirical post was misconstrued.”

Asked why she had posted the comment, Sultana said, “There was an India-Pakistan match and India played badly. I had written that satirical post to express my sadness that India lost and Virat Kohli was out on a duck. And since the controversy regarding eating beef and people being attacked for eating beef was making news at that time across the country, I wrote it that way. I do not understand how the post has been taken out of context and a controversy created and a case registered.”

On June 18, Pakistan had beaten India by 180 runs in Champions Trophy finals. In July, Sultana was also among ten poets and activists — most of them belonging to the Bengal-origin Muslim community — named in an FIR for objectionable content in poetry written in a dialect locally referred to as “Miyah”. The 28-year-old scholar, who hails from Kamrup district, said she was involved in volunteer work earlier this month when thousands of people got notices to appear for National Register of Citizens (NRC) hearings at a short notice.

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