Hyderabad: The CPI (M) on Monday condemned the registration of sedition case against its general secretary Sitaram Yechury and demanded immediate withdrawal of cases against Opposition leaders and all others named in the FIR, while Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy found fault with State government for allowing an FIR against AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi and a few other Congress leaders.
The police took action after a metropolitan magistrate issued the orders on a petition filed by a lawyer requesting the court to forward his complaint to the police station. Petitioner S Janardhan Goud told the court that though he approached the police station on February 14 to register the case, the police declined to do so. The petitioner alleged that Rahul Gandhi and other leaders committed sedition by visiting JNU to support students,
who he said had raised anti-India slogans. The police said they would seek legal opinion before taking further action in the case. The PCC chief said the lawyer who had filed the FIR was unaware of the law and its provisions about sedition. Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, he said that the petitioner was AGP (assistant government pleader) in the Transport department and was allegedly a member of the ABVP.
The CPM, in a statement, said, “The FIR has been lodged ostensibly because these leaders had extended support to JNU students who are protesting against the arrest of leaders of the students’ union and other organisations. The manner in which the sedition clause is being used in this case underlines the necessity to scrap the sedition clause 124A in the Indian Penal Code. The CPI (M) demands the withdrawal of cases against the Opposition leaders and all others named in the FIR.”
The statement urged the Central government to desist from actions which suppress democratic rights and freedom in the country by branding Opposition as ‘anti-national’.
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