Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi
In a stinging rebuke to the Mumbai Police, the Bombay High Court on Friday slammed the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi on charges of sedition. A division bench described the Mumbai Police action against Trivedi as 'arbitrary' and based on 'frivolous' grounds. More importantly, the high court said it would frame certain parameters that would have to be followed in future if the police want to slap charges of sedition against someone.
The Bombay High Court slammed the arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi
Hearing a PIL the division bench questioned: 'How can you (police) arrest people on frivolous grounds? You arrest a cartoonist and breach his liberty of freedom of speech and expression. Today you attacked a cartoonist; tomorrow you will attack a filmmaker and then a writer. We live in a free society and everyone has freedom of speech and expression.'The court wondered whether there were many more like him. 'We have one Aseem Trivedi who was courageous enough to raise his voice and stand against this, but what about several others whose voices are shut by police,' the court, which has now asked the police to file a comprehensive affidavit by October 12, said. The state government too was hauled up by the high court. 'What is the government's stand now? Does it intend to drop the charge? Someone has to take political responsibility for this,' the bench said...
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