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Charged with sedition, TISS student moves court
A 21-year-old trans-identified student, who was charged with sedition for reportedly raising slogans during the Mumbai Pride Solidarity Gathering on February 1,
A 21-year-old trans-identified student, who was charged with sedition for reportedly raising slogans during the Mumbai Pride Solidarity Gathering on February 1, approached the sessions court for anticipatory bail on Tuesday, and their plea is likely to be heard on Wednesday.
The student, whose name given at birth is Urvashi, but uses the name Kris Chudawala, is among 51 persons against whom the Mumbai Police registered by a First Information Report after former Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Kirit Somaiya lodged a complaint on February 2.
The student’s mother also gave her statement to the Mumbai police on Tuesday. “Someone would have instigated her to shout those slogans; she is not the kind of person who would do that,” their mother said, addressing media after recording her statement.
The Azad Maidan police station, which is conducting the probe is expected to submit a response by Wednesday. Chudawala’s lawyer Vijay Hiremath said that he would comment on the case only after the hearing.
On February 2, Somaiya tweeted a video of a group of persons raising slogans pertaining to Sharjeel Imam, a PhD student of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, who was booked for sedition last week after making allegedly inflammatory speeches in Delhi and at Aligarh.
A day later Somaiya tweeted, “I filled complaint with Mumbai Police on anti national demonstration/slogans in support of Sharjeel Imam during 1 Feb LGBT program. Thackeray Govt asked police not to register FIR. I will start “DHARNA” at Azad Maidan Police Station if action not taken in 3 day @BJP4Maharashtra.”
The FIR, lodged by the Mumbai police on Monday, lists sections 124(A) (sedition), 153(B) (assertions prejudicial to national integration), 500 (defamation), 505 (public mischief) and 34 (Common Intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The student was one of the estimated 3000 persons who attended the solidarity gathering on Saturday, held at the city’s Azad Maidan ground after the Queer Azadi March (QAM) organisers were denied permission to hold a Pride march. The reason cited by the police was that slogans against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens, would be raised during the march.
Soon after the video surfaced, QAM released a press statement which they also handed over to the police, a QAM volunteer who wished to remain anonymous, told HT. “We completely dissociate ourselves from and strongly condemn the abrupt radical slogans in support of Sharjeel and/or any other slogans against the integrity of India at the gathering,” the statement read.
A group of queer individuals and allies have started a petition against what they call “the systematic targeting of a young trans student, Kris Chudwala (referred to by their deadname in the FIR)”.
-- With inputs from Yesha Kotak, Presley Thomas
