No pre-arrest bail to activist Chudawala in sedition case


PTI | Mumbai | Updated: 05-02-2020 18:36 IST | Created: 05-02-2020 18:36 IST
No pre-arrest bail to activist Chudawala in sedition case
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A court here on Wednesday rejected anticipatory bail plea ofactivist Urvashi Chudawala, who is facing a sedition case for shouting "anti-national" slogans in support of JNU student Sharjeel Imam at an LGBTQ event. Additional sessions judge Prashant Rajvaidya rejected Chudawala's application for pre-arrest bail.

The court also refused to grant interim protection from arrest to Chudawala (22) so that she could move the high court. Prosecution, while opposing relief for her, had claimed that Chudawala was "supporting a person who is officially enemy of state".

According to the police, during a rally of the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer community at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai last week,Chudawala shouted the slogan "Sharjeel Tere Sapno Ko Hum Manzil Tak Pahuchaege" (Sharjeel, we will realise your dreams). Her lawyer Vijay Hiremath had argued that an innocuous slogan was taken out of contextto allege that she wanted to create hatred between two communities.

"There was only one line,which was said only once...has it done any harm? It was not aimed at public servant or government machinery...it is not sedition at all ....It does not create hatred towards government, community oranyone," he said. "We may not agree with her statement but that does not amount to sedition," the lawyer added.

Chudawala was a student, her examinations were nearing, and her career will be destroyed for a "two-second video", advocate Hiremath argued. "I (Chudawala) am being made an example as various protests are going on and they want to show they are taking it seriously. The state is not so fragile that a two-second video becomes sedition," he added.

Chief Public Prosecutor Jaisingh Desai argued that Chudawala had shared a post in support of Imam on social media a day before the rally, which she deleted later. Referring to the controversial speech by Sharjeel Imam, Desai said he had spoken against the country.

"You are supporting a person who is officially enemy of state," he said. When the police contacted her, she did not turn up before police to make clear her stand, the prosecution alleged.

Police could not carry out further probe without arresting her, Desai contended. Azad Maidan Police registered the case after a video showing Chudawala raising slogans in support of Imam went viral after the LGBTQ rally on February 1.

Imam was arrested last month for allegedly making inflammatory speeches at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi and in Aligarh during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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