Bihar Police closes controversial sedition case against celebrities

TIL Desk/National/Muzaffarpur/ The Bihar police has ordered closure of a sedition case lodged against nearly 50 celebrities, including filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Mani Ratnam and Anurag Kashyap, and the complainant would be prosecuted for levelling “false” allegations, a top police official said.

The development comes after a number of opposition leaders and prominent personalities condemned the filing of the FIR last week on the complainant by a Muzaffarpur-based advocate against the celebrities who had signed an open letter seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in “rising incidents” of mob lynching across the country.

The Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters), Jitendra Kumar, said on Wednesday the case was lodged at Muzaffarpur in the wake of the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order under Section 156(3) of the CrPC. Under the provision, the police had “no option but to register a case under sections which the reading of the complaint discloses”, he said.