Sedition charges against editor of news portal, Silchar Press Club demands its revocation

The editor of a news portal in Barak Valley of Assam has been slapped with sedition charges and Silchar Press Club Tuesday demanded that it be revoked immediately or journalists will continue their protests against it.

The charges were slapped on the editor, Anirban Roy Choudhury on Friday and an FIR was filed against him for allegedly seeking to create a division between the Assamese and Bengali communties in Barak Valley by his editorial 'Welcome to the paradise of the spineless - we are Assamese'.

The editorial had appeared after the arrest of Barak Democratic Front convenor Pradip Dutta Roy, also on sedition charges, following an ultimatum issued by him to the administration to remove a government hoarding on COVID-19 vaccination drive in Assamese put up in Bengali-dominated Silchar within 48 hours. It was found removed on November 26 and Dutta Roy was arrested the next day.

The FIR was filed by a person named Santanu Sutradhar, who is a member of the All Assam Bengali Hindu Association, and Roy Choudhury was summoned by Cachar sadar police station on Monday.

Besides sedition, Roy Choudhury was also charged under several other sections and he had appeared at the police station accompanied by around 50 journalists from across Barak Valley.

He was interrogated for over more than an hour and allowed to go on public recognisance bond on the condition that he will appear before the police whenever summoned, police said.

Roy Choudhury said that he will fight against the charges legally and will move the court soon.

Silchar Press Club secretary Shankar Dey said Roy Choudhury may not have been arrested and had been allowed to go on PR bond but ''our protests will continue till the sedition charges against him are dropped''.

''We will not tolerate false and fabricated sedition charges against journalists at any cost and our protests will be on'', he added.

More than 150 journalists of the three Barak Valley districts had wriiten to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma urging him to drop all charges against the editor as it was an attack on the right to the freedom of expression.

Dutta Roy was arrested on November 27 on sedition charges for creating disharmony among the Bengali and Assamese speaking communities in the state following the removal of the hoarding.

On October 19 unidentified miscreants had smeared black ink on hoardings written in Assamese in Silchar following which some people had defaced some signboards written in Bengali in Guwahati.

Sarma had said that nobody can hurt the Assamese language as ''it is in our hearts''.

It was people with vested interests and acting on the behest of a political party who are making the Bengalis living in the Brahmaputra Valley more vulnerable, he had said.

Assamese is the official language of the state while Bengali and Bodo are the associate languages. Bengali is used for administrative and educational purposes in Barak Valley.

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