Kerala HC Asks For Police Statement In Aisha Sultana's Bail Plea

Aisha Sultana Bail Plea: While hearing the anticipatory bail petition filed by Aisha Sultana, a filmmaker from Lakshadweep who has been booked in a sedition case, the Kerala High Court asked the Kavaratti Police to file a statement in the plea.

The judge, Justice Ashok Menon scheduled another hearing for June 17.

What is the sedition case against Aisha Sultana?

During a television debate in connection with the new regulations suggested by the centre for Lakshadweep, Aisha Sultana reportedly said that the government has manufactured a "bioweapon" against the people of the Union Territory.

In reaction to her statement, Lakshadweep's BJP unit chief C Abdul Khader Haji filed a complaint against the filmmaker at Kavaratti police station. The police filed an FIR and charged Sultana for sedition.

In her bail petition, Sultana argued that the "bio weapon" remark made by her was in connection with the alleged relaxation of COVID-19 protocols in the Union Territory. She pointed out to the court that the relaxations have caused a rise in COVID-19 cases in the region which had no cases till January 2021.

She also said that criticism on political issues doesn't account for sedition under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code.

The Aisha Sultana bail plea read, "The applicant had only intended to say that it was due to the apathetic approach and reforms of the new administrator that serious threat is being caused to the lives of the people of the Island and had absolutely no intention of exciting disaffection towards the Government."

The plea added that the offences under section 153B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) the charge on her ) does not stand against Sultana as she did not something that would harm the national integration, cause disharmony, feelings of ill-will, or enmity or hatred.

Sultana filed the bail plea under section 438 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). This happened after the Karavaratti police of Lakshadweep asked the filmmaker to appear at police headquarters in a notice issued under Section 41A of CrPC.