185 literary people endorse letter to PM Modi by 49 celebrities, condemn FIR

A case of sedition and breach of peace was registered against 49 eminent persons at a police station in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur on directions of a local court, police said on Friday.

Four days after Bihar police lodged a sedition case against 49 celebrities for writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concern over mob lynching of Dalits and Muslims, 185 members of the cultural community has endorsed the letter written by them on July 24, 2019.

Anurag Kashyap and Mani Ratnam were two of the 49 signatories of the letter to the PM. (Sourced.)

“An FIR has been lodged against forty-nine of our colleagues in the cultural community, simply because they performed their duty as respected members of the civil society. They wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister, expressing concern about mob lynching in our country. Can this be called an act of sedition? Or is harassment by misusing the courts a ploy to silence citizens’ voices?” said a statement signed by 185 artists and academicians.

The statement condemned registration of the case saying they “endorse every word of the letter” written to the prime minister. “This is why we share their letter here once again and appeal to the cultural, academic and legal communities to do the same. This is why more of us will speak every day against mob lynching and silencing of people’s voices,” the statement said.

A case of sedition and breach of peace was registered against 49 eminent persons at a police station in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur on directions of a local court, police said on Friday. Station house officer of Sadar police station, Mithlesh Kumar Jha, had said a case was registered on directions of the chief judicial magistrate’s court, where lawyer S K Ojha had filed a petition.