MUMBAI: A sessions court on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of a 22-yearold student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) booked for sedition. Urvashi Chudawala was booked for raising slogans in support of JNU student Sharjeel Imam, arrested for sedition, at the LGBTQ Pride March at Azad Maidan on Saturday.
Rejecting the plea, judge Prashant P Rajvaidya said: “Though this court is not dealing with the matters of crime allegedly committed by Sharjeel Imam, ultimately the intent of the statement uttered by the applicant (Chudawala) in supporting Sharjeel Imam, in my opinion, prima facie, attracts the ingredients of Section 124A (sedition) of Indian Penal Code which attracts life imprisonment. Hence, the offence is serious in nature.”
Opposing the student’s plea, chief public prosecutor Jaisingh Desai said Sharjeel’s statements were against the country, he is an enemy of the country and Urvashi had supported such a person. The accused’s slogan showed that the student wanted to fulfil Sharjeel’s dreams as he is in custody. He added that the student she didn’t cooperate with the police.
Defence advocate Vijay Hiremath submitted that for sedition, there should be a call for violence. “Was the line, said only once for two seconds as shown by the video, do any harm? It does not create any hatred towards the government, any community or individuals. It was in the intensity of the continuous sloganeering for 10 minutes. One line was said, and it was only against his (Sharjeel’s) arrest,” he said, adding that Chudawala was not connected to Sharjeel.
But the court said the material prima facie supported allegations that on her Facebook account, Chudawala had liked a photograph of Sharjeel, where it was mentioned, ‘Release Sharjeel Imam Unconditionally”. Sharjeel was arrested last month for suggesting that Assam could be delinked from India. It added that it did not find any truth in the defence argument that utterance of one slogan for two seconds needn’t be considered seriously.
Hiremath denied that Chudawala had deleted social media accounts to destroy evidence. He said they may have been disabled by her due to trolling. “She is openly trans and trolls will be vitriolic on her,” he said.
The defence pointed out she has final exams in March-April and if arrested, her career prospects will be destroyed. “We cannot forget… (she) is seeing a lot of discrimination in life being a trans person herself. We may not agree with what she has said, but that is not sedition… The state is not so fragile that one two-second statement would amount to sedition and that too by a 22-year-old student,” said Hiremath.
In another development, a students’ collective, IIT-Bombay for Justice, released a statement condemning the sedition charge against Chudawala.
Rejecting the plea, judge Prashant P Rajvaidya said: “Though this court is not dealing with the matters of crime allegedly committed by Sharjeel Imam, ultimately the intent of the statement uttered by the applicant (Chudawala) in supporting Sharjeel Imam, in my opinion, prima facie, attracts the ingredients of Section 124A (sedition) of Indian Penal Code which attracts life imprisonment. Hence, the offence is serious in nature.”
Opposing the student’s plea, chief public prosecutor Jaisingh Desai said Sharjeel’s statements were against the country, he is an enemy of the country and Urvashi had supported such a person. The accused’s slogan showed that the student wanted to fulfil Sharjeel’s dreams as he is in custody. He added that the student she didn’t cooperate with the police.
Defence advocate Vijay Hiremath submitted that for sedition, there should be a call for violence. “Was the line, said only once for two seconds as shown by the video, do any harm? It does not create any hatred towards the government, any community or individuals. It was in the intensity of the continuous sloganeering for 10 minutes. One line was said, and it was only against his (Sharjeel’s) arrest,” he said, adding that Chudawala was not connected to Sharjeel.
But the court said the material prima facie supported allegations that on her Facebook account, Chudawala had liked a photograph of Sharjeel, where it was mentioned, ‘Release Sharjeel Imam Unconditionally”. Sharjeel was arrested last month for suggesting that Assam could be delinked from India. It added that it did not find any truth in the defence argument that utterance of one slogan for two seconds needn’t be considered seriously.
Hiremath denied that Chudawala had deleted social media accounts to destroy evidence. He said they may have been disabled by her due to trolling. “She is openly trans and trolls will be vitriolic on her,” he said.
The defence pointed out she has final exams in March-April and if arrested, her career prospects will be destroyed. “We cannot forget… (she) is seeing a lot of discrimination in life being a trans person herself. We may not agree with what she has said, but that is not sedition… The state is not so fragile that one two-second statement would amount to sedition and that too by a 22-year-old student,” said Hiremath.
In another development, a students’ collective, IIT-Bombay for Justice, released a statement condemning the sedition charge against Chudawala.
Get the app