After the Bihar police ordered the closure of the sedition case filed against 49 celebrities for writing an open letter to PM Modi about the increased instances of atrocities against minorities and ‘mob lynching’, the complainant Advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha has filed a ‘protest petition’ against the police.

In the petition filed before Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Surya Kant Tiwari, he alleged that the police acted ‘under political pressure’ and urged the court to monitor the case or hand it over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The petition came after ADG (HQ) Jitendra Kumar announced in Patna on Wednesday that the sedition charges levelled against the eminent personalities would be closed as the complainant failed to prove the charges and didn’t provide any evidence to support his claim.

“The FIR was lodged on my complaint. The date of hearing for my protest petition has been fixed as November 11. The police has to submit its closure report before the court where I would oppose the same,” MrOjha told reporters.

The FIR was filed at Sadar police station last week after the CJM allowed a petition filed by Ojha, under section 156 (3) of the CrPC, in July, seeking directions to the police to register a case against the signatories to the open letter.

On ordering the closure of the case last week, the police also said that it would file a case against Ojha who is notorious for filing frivolous complaints. Ojha is linked with Ram Vilas Paswan’sLokJanshakti Party, which is an ally of the BJP at the Centre.

The Bihar Deputy CM, Sushil Kumar Modi had also claimed to be a victim of ‘serial litigant’ Ojha’s frivolous petitions in the past. The PM, the RSS or the BJP had nothing to do in the matter of the FIR against the celebrities, he had clarified in a statement last week.

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The Bihar police ordered closure for the sedition case lodged in Muzaffarpur against 49 eminent personalities including Shyam Benegal, Ramachandra Guha, Aparna Sen and Mani Ratnam among other signatories, and the prosecution of the complainant Sudhir Ojha for leveling ‘false charges’ against them.
The sedition case against the celebrities and intellectuals had been filed last week, leading to a huge controversy. The FIR was filed on the orders of Muzaffarpur Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Surya Kant Tiwari.

On Wednesday, Muzaffarpur SSP Manoj Kumar wrote to Bihar Police headquarters in Patna recommending case closure and seeking action against the petitioner.

The SSP came down heavily on Ojha saying that the case was filed “just to garner publicity” and was filed “without any rhyme or reason.” “The investigating officer in the case will file the final report at the local court within a day or two,” he added. The petitioner had named witnesses but failed to produce them before the investigating officer. The police did not find any evidence to go ahead with sedition charges.

Jitendra Kumar, ADG (Headquarters) said that the police had lodged the case following the CJM’s order. The complainant could not even produce before the SSP the letter written by the 49 personalities to support his claim.

On Tuesday, 185 other personalities including Mallika Sarabhai and Romila Thapar among others issued a statement endorsing the letter. Members of the Left inundated PM Modi with 1.5 lakh copies of the same letter in protest of the FIR while Congress’s Shashi Tharoor also wrote to the PM demanding that the sedition charges be dropped.

Nothing Political About It?
Sudhir Ojha, the petitioner, is said to have links with Ramvilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party. As an ally of the NDA, the case came as an embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar government, party sources said.

Nitish Kumar’s intervention was sought by his former associate and Rashtriya Janata Dal national vice president Shivanand Tiwary who pointed out that Guha, named as an accused, was among those intellectuals who have lavished praise on the Janata Dal-United chief.

Nitish Kumar’s deputy, Sushil Modi said that Ojha was a “serial litigant” who had a habit of filing frivolous petitions against people of eminence. Ojha is said to have lodged a total of 715 PILs including those against former PM Manmohan Singh, Amitabh Bachchan and Sushil Modi himself.

Sushil Modi also said that it would be wrong to drag the BJP or the RSS or target the PM in this matter, even though the move came a day after Mohan Bhagwat chief of the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — said in his Vijaya Dashami address that society must act by “remaining within the limits of Constitution”, no matter what the “difference of opinion be, or howsoever provocative actions might have taken place”.

Meanwhile, Ojha remains unfazed by the statement of the police and plans to file a petition against them soon.

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The post Big Win! Sedition charges against celebrities dropped, petitioner to be booked appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Members of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) – students and youth organizations of the Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M) in Kerala sent 1.5 lakh copies of the open letter that 49 eminent personalities had written to Narendra Modi in July.
Protesting against the sedition case filed against the celebrities who wrote the open letter to the PM citing the lack of punitive measures against mob attacks and lynchings against minorities, the members of the party dared the BJP to book them in similar cases. “If they feel the 49 signatories are traitors, please go ahead and book all of us who have sent the same letter,” said DYFI State Secretary AA Rahim who has already sent 50,000 copies of the letter to the PM. “We are ready to fill the jails for this cause.”

SFI State Secretary KM Sachin said that they had already sent one lakh copies of the letter to the PM by post, adding that the move was a campaign against the “anti-democratic BJP, which filed cases against some of our best-known and most respected intellectuals and artistes who had only made a point without insulting anyone or any party.”

Former chief minister and CPM veteran V.S. Achuthanandan too had protested after the case was registered in Muzaffarpur. “India is now realising that its hard-fought freedom is not safe in the hands of dictators…. This is the time for each Indian to react,” he wrote on Facebook.

Kerala State Chalachitra Academy has also protested against the FIR in which film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan was named. The academy, in a statement released here on Saturday, said the move by the government was a blatant violation of the freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution.

Last week, a Bihar court got a sedition FIR registered against 9 among the 49: filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aparna Sen and Mani Ratnam, actors Soumitra Chatterjee, Konkona Sen Sharma and Revathi, classical singer Shubha Mudgal and historian Ramachandra Guha.

The FIR was registered in Muzaffarpur on the orders of chief judicial magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari on a plea from local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha, who accused the defendants of tarnishing the country’s image.

“Case against intellectuals to destroy our Constitution”
Speaking about the FIR and the sedition case filed, AA Rahim also added, “The case against our intellectuals is part of a larger plan to destroy our Constitution and its values. By denying the rights enshrined in the Constitution, the BJP and the RSS are planning to silence those who speak against their fascist policies.”

The 49 eminent personalities have been booked under various sections of the IPC including sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with an intent to provoke breach of peace.

The letter also said that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ had become a provocative war cry and B Gopalakrishnan, a BJP leader from Kerala, even asked Adoor Gopalakrishnan to ‘change his name and go to another planet’ if he was unable to hear the Jai Shri Ram chant.

On Friday, Adoor had expressed concern about the FIR saying it was undemocratic and would create doubts on the law and order situation in the country. Gopalakrishnan had said last week: “We wrote that letter in the belief that democracy is in place. In the normal sense, the government should take it into consideration and find solutions.”

Congress Pens a Letter Too
Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor also appealed to the PM on Monday to  “affirm the constitutional principle of Article 19” and guarantee freedom of speech and expression stating that he is “deeply disturbed” by the FIR filed against the authors of an open letter to the PM in July.
“As citizens of India we hope that every one of us can fearlessly bring to your notice issues of national importance, so that you can take the lead to address them. We would like to believe that you too would support the right to freedom of expression, so ‘mann k ibaat’… does not become ‘maunkibaat’,” Shashi Tharoor has written in the letter.

“Since when has writing a letter of concern to the elected leader of the country… become the trigger for an FIR? Is the ‘Naya Bharat’ (New India) you wish to create one where citizens shall not be heard and their concerns not addressed?” Tharoor asked PM Modi.

Putting up his letter on Twitter, he also urged others to send the same, or similar letters to the PM, more FIRs notwithstanding.

 
Related
FIR against celebrities who sent letter to PM against mob lynching: Bihar
You must stop the name of Ram from being defiled: 49 celebs write to PM
 

The post From 1 to 1.5 lakh: Modi swamped with copies of open letter by celebs in sedition protest appeared first on SabrangIndia.