Konark Police Take Abhijit Iyer Mitra On Two-Day Remand

Konark: The court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) on Friday allowed the Konark Police to take research scholar Abhijit Iyer Mitra on two-day remand.

The court, however, told the police to produce Abhijit in the court soon after the end of his remand period which began from 2 pm on Friday till to 2 pm on Sunday.

The Konark Police that had taken Abhijit from the Jharpada Jail in Bhubaneswar last night on a four-day remand following the permission from the Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM), produced him at the residence of the JMFC at Konark, who remanded him to the judicial custody till November 5 after rejecting his bail plea.

Police later sent him to Nimapara sub-jail.

The Konark Police also prayed the JMFC for two-day remand of Abhijit for further interrogation.

Talking to mediapersons, government advocate Somnath Nishank said the JMFC rejected the bail plea of Abhijit on the basis of the case registered by the Konark Police under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), section 298 (uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) and Section 34 of the IPC (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act (computer-related offence).

Notably, one Bimbadhar Goura of Konark area had lodged a complaint against Abhijit at the Konark police station on September 19 for his derogatory remarks on the Sun Temple in a video which he had posted on his Twitter account.

Abhijit’s counsel Nikhil Mehera had told the media last night that the only priority for him was to apply for bail in the Orissa High Court for two cases registered by Saheed Nagar Police and Konark Police. “Since the cases cannot be tried in the High Court at present due to the ongoing strike by the lawyers, I have other remedies,” he had said.

Notably, after his arrest by the Saheed Nagar police on October 23, Abhijit was produced in the SDJM court which remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days after rejecting his bail plea. After he was produced in the court, IIC of Konark police station and Investigating Officer (IO) Sanjib Pradhan had appealed to the court to take him on seven-day remand. However, the court on Wednesday allowed the Konark Police to take him on four-day remand.

Abhijit had appeared before the House Committee of the Odisha Assembly on October 23 for his unpalatable remarks against the legislators, which he had posted on his Twitter account. The House Committee, after recording his statement after a two-phase interrogation, had asked him to appear again on November 2 with an affidavit.