Bihar Police Closes Sedition Case Against Eminent Persons Who Wrote To PM About Mob Lynching

As per the report, the Muzaffarpur SSP, Manoj Kumar Sinha, had ordered the closure of the case citing lack of the substance in the allegations.

The FIR was registered at Police Station, Muzaffarpur, last week, against the letter expressing concerns at the rise in hate-crimes in the country. Considerably, the letter was prompted by the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

49 personalities, including award-winning filmmakers Aparna Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, vocalist Shubha Mudgal, actors Soumitra Chatterjee, Konkona Sena, Revathy, director Mani Rathnam and historian Ramchandra Guha, who had endorsed the letter were roped in as accused persons.

"The open letter written by the accused persons to PM Modi, raising false concerns over growing incidents of mob lynching, is meant to tarnish the country's image at an international level and has undermined the friendly relations that the PM has tried to strengthen over the years;

Accused persons have tried to defame the country and its democratic structure;

Accused persons have committed treason by attempting to divide the country, by misleading the countrymen and spreading hatred and thus appear to be partisans of separatism", alleged the FIR registered for offences punishable under Sections 124A (sedition), 153B(acts against national integration), 160(affray, 290 (public nuisance), 297(trespass into burial places) and 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace).

The FIR was based on a complaint filed by one Advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha, which was forwarded by the Chief Judicial Magistrate under Section 156(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure for action.