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| Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi is being held in Mumbai on charges of sedition |
The arrest
of an anti-corruption cartoonist in India on charges of sedition has sparked
criticism.
Aseem
Trivedi was held in the city of Mumbai over the weekend for his cartoons
allegedly mocking the Indian constitution.
He was also
charged with insulting the national flag and remanded in police custody until
16 September.
The
cartoonist has been participating in the anti-corruption movement led by
campaigner Anna Hazare.
India's
media and prominent citizens have condemned Mr Trivedi's arrest, calling it a
"wrongful act".
"From
the information I have gathered, the cartoonist did nothing illegal and, in
fact, arresting him was an illegal act," Chairman of the Press Council of
India Markandey Katju told The Hindu newspaper.
"A
wrongful arrest is a serious crime under the Indian Penal Code, and it is those
who arrested him who should be arrested."
Mr Katju, a
former Supreme Court judge, asked how drawing a cartoon could be considered a
crime and said politicians should learn to accept criticism.
"Either
the allegation is true, in which case you deserve it; or it is false, in which
case, you ignore it. This kind of behaviour is not acceptable in a
democracy," he said.
Senior
journalist and the editor of CNN-IBN news channel Rajdeep Sardesai said he
found it "amusing, but also very dangerous that you can get away with hate
speech in this country, but parody and political satire leads to immediate
arrest".
A former
senior police officer and lawyer YP Singh told the Mint newspaper that from
"what I have heard, it seems he [Mr Trivedi] can be booked at the most
under a law to prevent insults to national honour and not on serious charges
like sedition, which attract much harsher punishment".
If proved,
a sedition charge can invite a three-year prison term in India.
The
micro-blogging site Twitter was also full of messages criticising Mr Trivedi's
arrest.
Police held
him acting on a complaint by a Mumbai-based lawyer who said his cartoons were
anti-India.
Earlier
this year, a website carrying Mr Trivedi's anti-corruption cartoons was banned
by the police in Mumbai, reports say.
In April,
Indian police arrested a professor in Calcutta for allegedly posting on the
internet cartoons ridiculing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He
was later released.
Related Articles:
India cartoonist Aseem Trivedi to be released
Jailed Indian Cartoonist Offered Bail Amid Outcry
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Activists
of India Against Corruption (IAC) shout slogans
during a protest against the arrest
of political cartoonist
Aseem Trivedi outside a court in Mumbai, India on
Monday.
Trivedi, whose drawings mock Indian government corruption,
was jailed
on a sedition charge in an arrest on Monday. But a
court in Mumbai ruled
Tuesday that Trivedi could be bailed after
outrage mounted over his detention. (AP
Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
|
Related Articles:
India cartoonist Aseem Trivedi to be released
Jailed Indian Cartoonist Offered Bail Amid Outcry
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