Sedition Charge: Writer Arrested For FB Post On Chhattisgarh Encounter

Picture courtesy Facebook

Guwahati: An Assamese writer has been arrested, reportedly for a comment on security personnel killed in an encounter with Maoists in Chhattisgarh on April 2.

A report in The Indian Express, quoting Guwahati Police Commissioner Munna Prasad Gupta, said that Sikha Sarma was arrested on charges of sedition.

According to the article, Sikha Sarma wrote in a Facebook post on April 5: “Salaried professionals who die in the line of duty cannot be termed martyrs. Going by that logic, electricity department workers who die of electrocution should also be labelled martyrs. Do not make people sentiment, media.”

As many as 22 security personnel were killed in a gun battle with Maoists in Bijapur last week.

On April 6, two Gauhati High Court lawyers filed an FIR against Sikha at the Dispur police station under several sections of IPC including sedition and one under the IT Act.

Describing Sikha’s comment as an “utter disrepute” to the honour of soldiers, the lawyers contended that “such distasteful remarks not only reduce the unparalleled sacrifice of our jawans to a mere money making discourse, but is also verbal assault on the spirit and sanctity of service of the nation.”

Netizens came down heavily on Sikha.

She tried to defend herself in the face of widespread backlash by saying: “Isn’t misrepresenting my post mental harassment? Will the false propaganda against me come under rule of law?”

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