The city Civil and Sessions Court on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea moved by a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Urvashi Chudawala, who was booked for sedition for raising slogans in support of arrested Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imam at the LGBTQ march, ‘Mumbai Pride’.
Sessions judge Prashant Rajvaidya said the case was of a serious nature, and that the accused needs to be questioned in custody to get to the root of the matter. “The statement uttered by her in support of Imam, prima facie attracts the ingredients of the charges of sedition under Section 124 (a) (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code, which attracts life imprisonment,” said the judge. “I cannot find anything at this stage that the utterance of the slogan for two seconds by the applicant is not required to be considered as serious.”
The court refused to give Ms. Chudawala any relief to approach the Bombay High Court.
Ms. Chudawala’s lawyer Vijay Hiremath had argued that the charges of sedition cannot be applied, arguing that there has to be a call for violence between two communities, and that his client had not mentioned any word of violence.
“Her protest against Imam’s arrest may be wrong but cannot be sedition,” Mr. Hiremath said. Ms. Chudawala had also contended that the prosecution has just taken part of the slogan and has not considered the names of either Rohit Vermula or Payal Tadvi.
Mr. Hiremath also claimed that the guidelines set by the HC in the case of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi have not been followed. However, chief public prosecutor Jaysingh Desai said, “Freedom of speech is not an issue. Who are you supporting? A person who is against the state.”
Mr. Desai also said the accused had deleted all her posts after she was booked in the case. He said Ms. Chudawala wanted to destroy evidence.