Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren declared on his Twitter account that the state administration has been recommended to drop the sedition charges enforced against 3,000 people for taking part in the anti- Citizenship Amendment Act protest.
“Laws are not made to frighten and silence the people but to instill a feeling of safety in the public. An instruction has been given to the respected authorities to drop the sedition cases registered against 3,000 people and also asked for action against the concerned official,” the Jharkhand CM tweeted.
Reportedly, on 7 January around 4,000 people took part in the anti-CAA protest from Ara Mor neighborhood in Wasseypur to Randhir Verma Chowk in the city. They carried banners against the CAA and raised slogans about Hindu-Muslim unity and freedom.” Subsequently, the Jharkhand Police booked 7 named and around 3,000 unnamed people under Section 124 A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code in Wasseypur, Dhanbad for participating in the protest without permission.
“The FIR was lodged as the protest procession with a huge number of people was taken out without permission, though we did make elaborate security arrangements after getting information about the march,” one of the sub-divisional officers said.
“We waited for a long time to get written permission but only a verbal assurance was given to us by the district authorities. Finally, we took out the peaceful protest march on Tuesday as we felt that our Constitution gave us the democratic right to protest against anything peacefully,” a protester, Md Noushad said.
Recommending to drop the charges against all those who were booked by the police, the Jharkhand Chief Minister also appealed to the people of Jharkhand to respect the law and order in the state.
