BENGALURU: After a sedition case was registered against Amnesty International India, in connection with the alleged raising of independence slogans by pro-freedom Kashmiris, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the state police is probing the case.
“The FIR has been registered. The police officials are probing the case. After the investigation, law will take its own course,” said Siddaramaiah
Meanwhile, reacting to the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the ABVP group, Amnesty International India’ said, that the allegations mentioned in the complaint are without substance and that it is an attempt to prevent the families of victims of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir from having their stories heard. And at the same time, the authorities are also stopping civil society organisations from enabling these families to exercise their constitutional right to justice.
“Amnesty International India's vision is for every person in India to enjoy the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, other international human rights standards, and the Constitution of India. We are independent of any political, economic or ideological interests,” said a statement from Amnesty International.
According to reports, The FIR has been registered under IPC sections– 142 (being member of an unlawful assembly), 143 (whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony).
The event was organised by Amnesty International India at United Theological College.
Yeddyurappa flays anti-India slogans at Amnesty event
NEW DELHI: BJP leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Tuesday flayed those who raised anti-national slogans at an event organised by Amnesty International's India chapter in Bengaluru last week.
"What happened in the JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University's Delhi campus) is being repeated here... we won't allow such things to happen in Karnataka," he said.
The BJP leader said he had written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the issue and sought necessary action.
The police had registered a case on charges of sedition, rioting, unlawful assembly and promoting enmity against Amnesty India on Monday night with regard to the event it organised in Bengaluru on August 13.
"We have booked a case of sedition and rioting under various sections of the Indian Penal Code against Amnesty on a complaint that anti-India slogans were raised," Bengaluru Deputy Police Commissioner T.R. Suresh told IANS on Tuesday.
Asked if pressing sedition charge was excessive, he said strong action must be taken since "it's being repeated everywhere now".
The 90-minute event was held in Karnataka's capital to interact with some Kashmiri families who were victims of alleged human rights violations in the strife-torn valley and to hear their struggle for justice.
Some Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad activists present at the event alleged that a group of Kashmiri youths raised slogans claiming atrocities by the army.
(Inputs from ANI/IANS)