The court of District and Sessions Judge Sadhana Rani Thakur (Mathura), admitted the revision application on November 10 against police custody of the three accused booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and sedition laws by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
The three accused were represented by their counsel Madhuban Dutt Chaturvedi. The next hearing is slated to be heard on November 27.
On November 4, as reported by the Times of India, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (Mathura) granted forty-eight hours police remand to the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force for questioning the four alleged Popular Front activists. Their counsel Chaturvedi argued that this order of the CJM was beyond its jurisdiction.
Background
They were all arrested by the UP police after a laptop and some objectionable literature relating to ‘Justice for Hathras Victim’ was allegedly recovered from their possession while they were en route to Hathras. It is alleged that they are linked with Popular Front of India’s (PFI) student wing Campus Front of India (CFI) and were traveling from Delhi.
The Superintendent of Police (SP) for Mathura, Rural Sheerish Chand confirmed that the four were booked for sedition and other charges under UAPA, as per The Hindustan Times report.
In addition to sedition, they have been booked for promoting enmity between two groups and deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage feelings under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. Under UAPA, they have been booked for raising funds for terrorist acts.
Charges of offences of tampering with computer source records, breaching confidentiality and privacy under the relevant sections of the Information Technology Act have also been levelled upon all accused.
The FIR registered against them at Mant police station of Mathura alleges that they were attempting to incite violence, spread rumours, serve pamphlets of ‘Am I not India’s daughter’ and wage a hate campaign against India through its website carrd.co in Hathras. They were blamed for allegedly using the website to accept donations as well.
On October 16, their bail plea was rejected by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mathura and has now been transferred to the court of Additional Sessions Judge Mayur Jain.
