JOIN USKanpur-based cartoonist and India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Aseem Trivedi on Monday refused to seek bail, after he was transferred from police to judicial custody, demanding that the sedition charge slapped on him “be lifted.”
The cartoonist, charged with insulting the national emblem through satirical sketches, said: “If telling the truth makes me a traitor, then I am one. If I am booked under sedition for doing service to the nation then I will continue to do so and I refuse to move bail provisions. I will rather spend my whole life in jail than accept or fight such a charge.”
Trivedi was arrested on Saturday on sedition and other charges following a complaint that he had put up banners mocking the Indian Constitution during the Anna Hazare rally held last year in Mumbai and also uploaded obscene contents on his website.
Trivedi was remanded in police custody on Sunday. The furore sparked off by the arrest across the country sent the police back to the Bandra Metropolitan Magistrate Court where the state prayed that Trivedi be transferred to judicial custody . Trivedi was later transfered to the Arthur Road Jail where he will remain till September 24.
Advocate Vijay Hiremath, representing Trivedi, told Deccan Herald that the authorities “have not provided us either an FIR or remand copy. Now, we will have to take it from the court. And that can be done only on Tuesday. After that can we plan our strategy.”
In Chennai, Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju termed the arrest of Trivedi a “serious criminal offence.” He said politicians and police officials behind it should be instead arrested and tried.