On Friday, the Lakshadweep filmmaker and activist Aisha Sultana was granted an anticipatory bail in a Sedition case filed against her, for her comments against Lakshadweep administrator Praful Khoda Patel.
The past week, Sultana was granted an interim anticipatory bail by the high court in the sedition case filed against her for criticizing the island administration and the new policies.
However, on Thursday, the administration filed an application saying that Sultana had abused the court’s earlier protection order and broken COVID-19 norms.
“There is no apparent indication in her statement, which amounts to imputations or assertions prejudicial to the national interest, nor does it propagate any class of persons against another group of persons,” the bail order said, according to Bar and Bench.
The BJP chief of Lakshadweep, C. Abdul Khader Haji, had filed a complaint with the Kavaratti Police, who booked Sultana in an FIR under sections 124A (sedition) and 153B (acts against national integration) of the Indian Penal Code.
Sultana had equated on a panel discussion, the UT’s administrator, Praful Khoda Patel, with a bioweapon on a television channel debate and criticized his decision to do away with mandatory quarantine in the island. This decision was responsible for the surge of COVID-19 cases in Lakshadweep, Sultana had remarked.
“In the event of her arrest, the applicant shall be released on bail on execution of bond for 50,000 with two solvent Rupees sureties each for like amount to the satisfaction of the arresting officer and subject to the conditions under Section 438 (2) CR.PC,” the bench said.
Sultana’s remarks came amid the surging protests in Lakshadweep over the new rules and proposals introduced in the region by the BJP administration.
The UT population believes that the measures are anti-police and that they threaten their livelihoods. The measures include a ban on cow slaughter and some measures aim at removal or relocation of the islanders from their property for town planning and detentions without trials for up to an year.
People of the island have largely opposed the measures. They say that the measures will destroy the region’s character and identity since 97% of the islands are covered by forests and 95% of the Muslim population in the island belongs to the protected scheduled tribe category.