Sanjay Raut charged with sedition for objectionable article against PM Modi in ‘Saamana’

Hitting back, Raut accused the BJP of being dictatorial. “There is an undeclared emergency in the country. The BJP can file FIRs, but they must answer our criticism,” he said

Yavatmal: Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) leader Sanjay Raut has been booked for sedition and other offences for writing an objectionable article against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the party mouthpiece Saamana, a senior official said on Tuesday. The FIR was registered after BJP’s Yavatmal district coordinator Nitin Bhutada lodged a complaint against the Rajya Sabha member, who is the executive editor of Saamana, the official said. The objectionable comments were made in an article published on December 10, Bhutada claimed in his compliant.

Mumbai, India - November 4, 2019: Minister of Envirnoment Ramdas Kadam and Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut interact with media after meeting Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai, India, on Monday, November 4, 2019. (Photo by Kunal Patil/Hindustan Times) (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

Hitting back, Raut accused the BJP of being dictatorial. “There is an undeclared emergency in the country. The BJP can file FIRs, but they must answer our criticism,” he said, adding that the party had no right to say that they fought against the Emergency if they kept filing FIRs. “The BJP is more cruel than the dictatorship during the Emergency,” he noted.

The case against Raut was registered on Monday at Umarkhed police station in Yavatmal under sections 124 (A) (sedition), 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code.

“We have registered a case based on the complaint and will conduct a probe,” said the officer. The law on sedition, which provides for a maximum jail term of life under section 124A of the IPC for creating “disaffection towards the government”, was brought into the penal code in 1890, a full 57 years before Independence and almost 30 years after the IPC came into being.