Kendrapada: The Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court at Rajnagar in Odisha’s Kendrapada district sentenced two men to two-year imprisonment, almost two decades after they were accused of dishonouring the Indian national flag.
The duo – Sheikh Aiuddin (45) and Sheikh Nashiruddin (47) – were found guilty of insulting the tricolour during Independence
Day celebrations in 2004. They were sentenced to jail under Section 2 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, which prohibits acts such as defacing or showing disrespect to the tricolor, with penalties that can include up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.
According to prosecution counsel Nalinikanta Mangaraj, the duo had defaced the national flag that had been hoisted at the government-run Binapani Primary School in Kanakanagar village under Rajnagar police limits on August 15, 2004. A third accused in the case, Sheikh Mouddin, who allegedly committed the offence alongside the convicts, died in 2020.
The verdict was delivered based on material evidence and testimonies from eight witnesses, the Statesman reported.