The Kerala High Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest for a week to Lakshadweep filmmaker Aisha Sultana in the sedition case registered against her over her ‘bio-weapon’ remark during a television debate on the ongoing crisis in Lakshadweep.
A single bench of Justice Ashok Menon also ordered that she should appear before the Kavaratti police for interrogation on June 20 as per the notice served on her under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
However, in the event of her arrest, she should be released on bail, the court ordered. In case an arrest is recorded after her interrogation, she is entitled to demand the presence of her counsel as per Section 41D CrPC, the Court added.
Sultana was booked on June 10, for saying that the Centre was using the Union Territory’s administrator Praful Khoda Patel as a “bio-weapon” against the residents of Lakshadweep. The Lakshadweep unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party had filed a complaint, accusing her of making “anti-national” comments “tarnishing the patriotic image of the central government” during a debate on a Malayalam news channel.
A set of new regulations introduced by Patel has triggered a massive outcry among the residents of the Union Territory as well as Opposition parties.
Residents of Lakshadweep have also blamed Patel’s decision to relax quarantine norms for the rise in Covid-19 cases. Last year, Lakshadweep was free of the pandemic. The first coronavirus case was reported in Lakshadweep on January 18. As of Thursday morning, Lakshadweep has 484 active cases of coronavirus, 8,768 recoveries and 45 fatalities.
Sultana has been booked under Section 124A (sedition) and 153B (acts against national integration) of the Indian Penal Code.
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