BENGALURU: The Bidar district police, which registered a sedition case against three people in connection with the anti-CAA play performed at the Shaheen Primary & High School have said that video footage of the play was deleted from the school CCTV camera.
They claim this is also one of the reasons the police had to question students, parents, and school staff.
“The school has installed CCTV cameras at various places in the campus. After receiving a complaint regarding the play, police went to the school on January 27 to conduct the panchnama. When the investigating officer asked for the video footage of the play they had staged on January 21, they found that the files were deleted. The video footage would have helped the police in verifying the complaint (against the school) and in further investigation,” Superintendent of Police, Bidar, Nagesh DL said.
“The digital video recorder (DVR) has been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for data retrieval. Data can be retrieved if it was deleted normally and has not been overwritten,” said the officer. Nagesh was posted to Bidar on February 2.
On January 30, the Bidar New Town police had arrested the headmistress of the school Fareeda Begum, and the mother of a nine-year-old girl who had acted in the play Nazbunissa, under sedition charges. The two women are in judicial custody.
Meanwhile, Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) member Dr Jayashree, visited the school on Wednesday and interacted with students, parents and staff. “She will be submitting the report to the Commission on Thursday,” said KSCPCR Chairperson Father Anthony Sebastian.
Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code on sedition says, “Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government established by law in India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment, which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.”
Drop sedition charges against a school, Congress legislators urge state police chief
Congress legislators on Wednesday urged Karnataka Police Chief Praveen Sood to drop sedition charges against three people connected with the Bidar school for staging a play against the Citizenship Amendment Act and release those arrested.
In a letter to the DG&IGP, six Congress MLAs, including KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “By no stretch of the imagination, can an innocent act of protest be perceived as sedition or treason.”
Urging the state government to direct the police to withdraw sedition charges and release those arrested in the case, the Congress leaders expressed concerns over the “widespread misuse of the law against sedition, affecting the lives of vulnerable.”
Senior Congress leader and former Governor Margaret Alva said she was shocked and pained by “the CM’s silence at the events unfolding in the school.”