MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest to a former Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) student accused of raising inflammatory slogans during an unauthorised campus event held last October to mark the death anniversary of the late Delhi University professor and human rights activist GN Saibaba.
Das then challenged the decision in the high court. The case stems from an FIR registered at the Trombay police station, based on a complaint filed by the TISS administration. The nine students were booked for unlawful assembly, promoting enmity between different groups, making imputations prejudicial to national integration and provocation with intent to cause a riot, among other offences. The TISS administration alleged that the students had displayed photographs of Saibaba, lit candles, read his poems and raised inflammatory slogans. The investigation, initially conducted by Trombay police, was subsequently transferred to the Crime Investigation Department. Das claimed that a TISS security guard present at the event had photographed the students and uploaded the pictures on social media.
A single-judge bench of justice Prafulla Khubalkar granted Kamakhya Prasad Das protection from arrest till August 31, when the matter will be heard next. On August 7, a sessions court granted anticipatory bail to seven of the nine accused students but denied pre-arrest bail to Das and another student, Abhirup Paul.
The judge stated that shouting slogans in support of individuals whose bail was rejected by the Supreme Court failed to show respect for the “law of the land”. Several users subsequently tagged the Mumbai police in the post, “pressuring them to take action against those who had done nothing but express their sympathies for a deceased, disabled professor who promoted social equality and harmony for all,” the plea said.
On August 7, a sessions court granted relief to seven students. Das moved the high court on August 10, through advocates Vijay Hiremath and Rishika Agarwal, stating that the case against him was completely false. Das and Paul were denied relief due to allegations that they were in possession of books and literature published by the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and were not cooperating with the investigation, thereby requiring their custodial interrogation.
The plea said the students had read two poems authored by Saibaba “in the spirit of acknowledging Saibaba’s struggles as a disabled person, who underwent long incarceration, and was eventually acquitted”.
