Kerala HC grants bail to filmmaker Aisha Sultana.
On Friday, the Kerala High Court granted bail to filmmaker Aisha Sultana, who faces sedition charges for her comment that the central government had used a “biological weapon” against Lakshadweep.
Sultana, who has become the face of Lakshadweep’s protests against a host of preliminary proposals put forward by administrator Praful K Patel for the “development” of the islands, had alleged that the Center had used Covid-19 as a ” biological weapon “against the people of the archipelago.
In granting bail to Sultana, a bench judge Ashok Menon said prima facie, the crimes alleged by the prosecution are not attracted. “The ingredient in establishing the crime of sedition under Section 124-A IPC is the performance of certain acts that would lead the statutory government in India to hatred or contempt, etc. In this case, there is not even a suggestion that the applicant did something as such against the Government of India. ”
Referring to the penal provision of Section 153-A of the IPC (promoting enmity and performing acts detrimental to the maintenance of harmony), slapped against the filmmaker, Judge Menon said that “it is doubtful that the penal provisions of S. 153-A are lured in this case. ”
The court said that the petitioner has opposed the reforms recently introduced by the Administrator and has pledged allegiance to the people of Lakshadweep in their protest against the reforms. “There is no apparent indication in his statement that amounts to accusations or assertions that are harmful to the national interest, nor does he propagate any kind of people against another group of people.”
Regarding the sedition charge, the court said: “Prima facie, the plaintiff had no malicious motive to subvert the government established by law simply by using the strong word ‘biological weapon’ to express her vehemence in disapproval of the issue under discussion. Their intention is explicitly to criticize the modification of the SOP, introduced by the administrator of Lakshadweep. ”
Sultana had made the comments during a debate on Malayalam channel MediaOne TV about the recent reforms and the change to Covid-19 SOPs. She said: “I can clearly say that the Center has used biological weapons on the island …”
He later clarified that what he meant to say was that the Center was using Administrator Patel as a “biological weapon” on the islands.
She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.