NEW DELHI: An Indian court ordered police on Saturday to investigate whether award-winning author Arundhati Roy could be tried for sedition over her comments about Kashmir.

In an appeal to a local court, Sushil Pandit, a private citizen, accused Roy of sedition for saying that Kashmir was not an integral part of India at a seminar in New Delhi last month.

“The court decided to instruct the police to register a proper (complaint), investigate the crime and report back by 6th of January,” Pandit told reporters.

Roy, a fierce critic of India's policy in Kashmir, will be investigated alongside hardline Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and five other people, according to the petitioner's lawyer and police.

“This is a ploy to distract attention from the real issue,” Roy, winner of the 1997 Booker Prize for “The God of Small Things”, told CNN-IBN television.

Police confirmed they had receiced a court order to investigate the case.

Speaking to Reuters in Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar, Geelani said he was aware of the case.

“This is nothing new for me. There are already dozens of cases against me,” he said.

The divided, mostly Muslim Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the heart of hostility between India and Pakistan and was the cause of two of their three wars.

Violent anti-government protests have swept Kashmir since June, killing more than 110 people. – Reuters