The Mumbai police have booked over 50 people on a charge of sedition for allegedly raising a slogan in favour of JNU student Sharjeel Imam on February 1 during a protest at Azad Maidan in Mumbai by Queer Aazadi.
Among this booked was one who has been identified as Urvashi Chudawala who is a student of second-year MA in media and culture at Tata Institute of Social Science. He is also associated with TISS Queer Collective.
Pranaya Ashok, Deputy Commissioner of Police said that apart from Chudawala, 50 others were also booked under Sections 124 (A) (sedition), 153 (B) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) and 34 (Common Intention) of the Indian penal code (IPC). “We have registered an FIR against Chudawala and 50 others. We will call them to (Azad Maidan) police station for further investigations,” he added.
Earlier in the day, home minister Anil Deshmukh also referred to the slogans raised at the LGBTQ event. He said that a group led by Urvashi Chudawala had chanted “anti-national slogans”.
He said, “The event organisers told us that they have nothing to do with the slogans that were raised by Chudawala and the others. We will be taking action against chanting of such anti-national slogans.”
On January 28 Sharjeel Imam was arrested from Jehanabad in Bihar for making seditious comments at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi and in Aligarh. He said, “Assam should be cut off from the rest of India”. The Delhi Police had earlier lodged an FIR against Imam for sedition.