Two Kerala students who had been arrested in connection with posters about Kashmir got bail from the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court at Malappuram today. The students who had been charged with sedition told media persons on Monday that the posters were not written by them.
Posters put up at Malappuram Government College (Courtesy-www.keyboardjournal.com)
Human rights activists had taken a strong stance against the arrest of two students in Malappuram in connection with posters about Kashmir. A joint statement signed by the group of activists, lawyers, journalists etc pointed out that the Supreme Court had stated earlier in several similar cases that sedition should not be charged for pasting posters or raising slogans without any immediate violent results. The statement condemned the present situation in the country in which individuals, especially students, are charged with sedition for raising their voice against the government. Stamping the independent expression of opinions and political activism as anti-national would harm the integrity of campus politics and democratic set-up. At a time when countries like Britain have repealed their sedition laws, there should be serious thought on repealing Section 124 (A) from the Indian Penal Code, it added. The statement also requested the college authorities and the government to go back from the act of denying freedom of expression and political activism. The statement was signed by activists in different fields such as A Vasu, V Prabhakaran, Dr TT Sreekumar (EFLU, Hyderabad), Dr Jenny Rowena (Delhi University), Dr MH Ilyas (MG University), Adv Tushar Nirmal Sarathi, Reny Ayline (NCHRO), Adv Abdul Kabeer, AM Nadwi (Minority Rights Watch), Kamalsi Najmal, Waseem RS, PK Sadiq etc.
Two students of the Government College, Malappuram, – Rinshad, doing second-year B.Com, and Muhammed Haris, doing first year BA Islamic Studies – were arrested on Thursday and charged with Section 124(A) accusing them of pasting posters related to Kashmir. The posters advocated ‘freedom for Kashmir, Nagaland and Palestine’ and ‘to condemn the Sangh attack on Kashmiris after the Pulwama attack’. The college principal complained to the police about the posters and the students were arrested from their homes, according to reports. The posters were pasted under the banner of the Radical Students Forum, a recently-formed student organisation with leftist leanings which used to hold talks and studies on different matters including the Sangh atrocities nationwide.
Courtesy: Two Circle