New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has stayed the arrest to two persons who were accused of sedition during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests earlier this year in Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad.
A case was filed against Ahmed Ali and Suhaib-ur-Rahman, on March 6, under sections 124A (sedition) and 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the IPC at Kareli police station of Prayagraj, said news reports. Ahmed Ali is a Muslim cleric and Suhaib-ur-Rahman heads a Muslim outfit.
They were accused of distributing “unlawful” pamphlets during the protest against the CAA, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.
While it is not clear in what way the pamphlets were “unlawful” and how their contents could pass the “violence” threshold prescribed by the Supreme Court over the years for the the crime of sedition, lawyers for the accused argued that their clients’ names were not mentioned in the FIR, and therefore it should be quashed.
According to reports, a co-accused, Fazal Khan, allegedly revealed the name of Suhaib-ur-Rahman when the police interrogated him after being arrested.
The division bench comprising Justices Bachchoo Lal and Subhash Chandra Sharma refused to quash the FIR against them saying there were no grounds for it.
The lawyer reportedly said the two were falsely implicated in the case only for harassment as there was no cogent evidence on record to connect the petitioners with the alleged offence.
The government counsel opposed the request for quashing of the FIR and argued that a cognisable offence was made out against the two.
The court has stayed the arrest of the two till the police report is submitted, provided that they cooperate with the investigation.