Kanpur-based cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, who was arrested for allegedly posting seditious content on his website, was released from a Mumbai jail on Wednesday, September 12.
He said he will continue the struggle till Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is removed. “I did not commit any crime. The government has to accept the mistake,” Trivedi said while addressing a press conference after his release from Arthur Road Jail. “This fight will not slowdown after my release. The fight will continue till 124 A (sedition charges) and all curbs on freedom of speech are removed,” he said.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Trivedi on a personal bond of Rs. 5,000. According to reports, the sedition charges against Trivedi might be dropped.
India Against Corruption (IAC) member Mayank Gandhi earlier told media that Trivedi decided to come out of the jail after Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said he would see that sedition charges against the cartoonist are dropped.
Trivedi on Tuesday refused to come out of the jail till the charges made against him were dropped.
Patil told reporters he would take the opinion of the law department in connection to the case and then take a decision on withdrawing the charges.
“After getting the details, we are going to take a decision on the issue of withdrawing the sedition charge on the cartoonist,” Patil told media.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday said the state government has not taken any decision on the matter so far. A Mumbai court on Monday remanded Trivedi to 14-day judicial custody till Sept 24.
The Mumbai Police did not seek his custody while Trivedi also did not apply for his bail. Hence the court sent him to judicial custody. Trivedi was remanded to police custody till Sept 16 by the court on Sunday.
Trivedi was arrested on Saturday following a complaint filed in December last year by advocate Amit Katarnavea, a member of the Republican Party of India, who alleged Trivedi was responsible for banners purportedly mocking the Indian constitution. His website too has also been blocked, reports said, over the banners and posters that were put up during Anna Hazare’s anti-graft rally held last year at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai.
The police, that had tried to arrest Trivedi over a non-bailable warrant issued last month but failed as he was untraceable, said the cartoonists arrest is a “procedural formality”, following the First Information Report (FIR) that accuses him of putting up “ugly and obscene content” on his website.
“He has shown disrespect to the National flag and therefore he has been arrested under section 124 A,” Chandrakant Bhosale, Senior Inspector, Mumbai Police, was quoted as saying. The IAC lent its support to Trivedi saying that the arrest is politically motivated.
“If anyone is talking against corruption, proclaiming it as anti-national and slamming charges of sedition, one needs to understand that this (drawing cartoons) is against the government and not against the country,” said IAC member Mayank Gandhi.
The IAC Facebook page posted a link to an online petition demanding the release of Trivedi after his arrest.