The Madhya Pradesh police has dropped sedition charges against 15 persons, arrested in Burhanpur district for cheering Pakistan cricket team after it won the ICC Champions Trophy final against India.
Tension had gripped Mohad town, about 23 kms from the district headquarters, on Sunday night after some persons shouted slogans in favour of Pakistan and celebrated its cricket teams win by bursting firecrackers.
According to police, the suspects had also raised anti- India slogans.
“We have dropped the sedition charge under section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code and have invoked IPC section 153 (a) instead against them for disturbing communal harmony,” Burhanpur Superintendent of Police RRS Parihar said.
“The alteration in charges, done late on Thursday night, will be communicated to the court when the challan is filed against the accused,” said Parihar.
Parihar said that after two days of investigation, it was found that the accused had no past criminal record and they celebrated Pakistan’s win in excitement. “We subsequently decided to drop the sedition charges, and instead, slapped charges pertaining to disturbing communal harmony,” said the SP.
However, informed sources confided that the police may have dropped the sedition charge for want of sufficient evidence to prosecute them.
However, Gulzar, the father of Iqbal, one of the arrested men, had written to the President and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday asking for a probe by an independent agency into the arrest.
A Burhanpur-based lawyer Ubed Shaikh, claiming that the men (including two minors) were falsely implicated by the police for sedition, decided to contest the case for nine of them.
Earlier on Tuesday, when the arrested men were produced before the judicial magistrate first class court in Burhanpur, a group of lawyers had requested the Burhanpur District Bar Association not to allow any advocate to defend the 15 accused.
On Monday, the police had arrested 15 persons, aged between 19 and 35, and had booked them for sedition and criminal conspiracy (IPC section 120-B).
They were arrested on Monday and the next day produced in a court which sent them to jail.
The accused are lodged at a jail in Khandwa, the neighbouring district of Burhanpur.
