Mumbai: A day after sedition charges were slapped on Urvashi Chudawala, a Tata Institute of Social Sciences student, and 50 others for purportedly raising slogans at Azad Maidan in support of Sharjeel Imam, the Mumbai Police said Chudawala was untraceable.
(Imam is a scholar of Jawaharlal Nehru University, who was picked from Bihar recently and booked for sedition. He had allegedly made remarks about how Muslims in could choke the Chicken Neck area in North East to snap the link between Assam and India.)
On Tuesday, a police team went to Urvashi’s residence in Thane, where her mother Rina said her daughter was not at home. Rina was summoned to the Azad Maidan police station, where her statement was recorded.
According to the police, Rina said she was not aware of her daughter’s whereabouts, and that in her last conversation on the phone, all Chudawala told her was that she was safe.
Leaving the police station after her statement was recorded, Rina told reporters, "I am not in contact with her (Urvashi) since yesterday, and we are also looking for her. She is not at fault and I will ask her to cooperate.”
Asked why her daughter may have raised the slogans, Rina said," Someone could have tutored her".
Legal experts The Free Press Journal spoke with, however, felt that the sedition charges were unwarranted and would not hold up in court. "The students have only raised slogans in support of Sharjeel Imam and not against the government.
In fact, there is a judgment of the apex court wherein it has held that only raising slogans cannot constitute sedition unless there is an implicit threat of violence.
This section is being invoked and grossly misused against every person who holds an opinion against CAA etc," said senior counsel Aspi Chinoy.
Similarly, advocate Dr Sujay Kantawala opined that merely raising slogans would not constitute valid grounds to prosecute the students for sedition. "I do not think that sedition is made out.
For charges of sedition, there must be some positive act and proof as this is a serious charge. There must be some tangible evidence like planning, execution conspiracy etc. For instance, the students have not specified which dreams (of Sharjeel) they are supporting.”
The police, meanwhile, said they had formed several teams to trace Chudawala, whose social media accounts were also found to have been deactivated.
The police said they were aware of two mobiles numbers Chudawala has been using, but she did not answer calls placed to both numbers. On Monday, the Mumbai Police registered a case against Chudawala and “50 others” under the relevant IPC sections dealing with the charge of sedition -- imputations, assertions prejudicial to national Integrity – and statement conducive to public mischief and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention.
The accused were among hundreds who took party in a rally, the Queer Azadi Mumbai (QAM) march, organised by various LGBT groups led by Humsafar Trust on February 1 at Azad Maidan.
The offence was registered after a video recorded at the event went viral in which Chudawala could be heard saying, “Sharjeel tere sapno ko, hum manzil tak pahuchaege (Sharjeel, We will realise your dreams)”. In the short video clip, some could be seen holding Imam's picture.
Chudawala, a second-year student of TISS, is pursuing MA in media and culture, and she is also associated with TISS Queer Collective.
