Five women charged with sedition

TNN / Mar 25, 2008, 04:31 IST

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Five women, arrested for putting up posters demanding the release of top Maoist leader Somen, were charged with sedition and hatching conspiracy against the state.

KOLKATA: Five women, arrested on Sunday for putting up posters demanding the release of top Maoist leader Somen, were charged with sedition and hatching conspiracy against the state. They were produced in an Alipore court on Monday.
Members of the Nari Mukti Sangha �� a women's rights body �� Bishnupriya Baidya (17), Puja Mandal (18), Manju Mandal (18), Minu Saha (22) and Kanika Debnath (35), were putting up posters at Baghajatin railway station on Sunday, when they were accosted by a group of Citu activists.
The Citu activists warned the five against putting up the posters and asked them to leave. When the five refused, the Citu men surrounded them and informed the local mahila samity.
Kanika alleged that they were taken to a CPM party office and beaten up by the samity members. The Jadavpur police station was informed that some Maoists have been caught and a police team picked up the five from the party office. Kanika later lodged a complaint of assault and wrongful confinement. The police did not inform the arrested women's families.

Police records showed the arrests were made at 7.55 pm on Sunday. Incidentally, the seizure list produced at the court, which stated that "provocative documents and posters" were seized from Kanika's house at Jorabagan, also put the time of the raid as 7.55 pm.
The five were produced at Alipore SDJM court on Monday morning. They were charged with conspiracy (Section 120B), war against state (Section 121), conspiracy to commit offences against state (Section 121A) and sedition (Section 124A).

While Kanika and Bishnupriya were remanded in police custody for a week, the rest have been remanded in judicial custody.
The families were taken aback by the arrests. "She (Minu) went out on Sunday and didn't return. We made enquiries but nobody had any information about her," said Minu's father Bimal Saha, who stays at a colony on Bagmari Road. A police team also raided the house of the organization's chief Kalpana Mukherjee at Belghoria but did not find anything. She said the arrested rights body members were also protesting against price rise.
IG (law & order) Raj Kanojia said these were preventive arrests as several "objectionable and provocative" documents had been found on them.

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