The arrest of an anti-corruption cartoonist in India on charges of
sedition has sparked off criticism.
Aseem Trivedi was held in the city ofMumbai over the weekend for his
cartoons allegedly mocking the Indian constitution.
Mr Trivedi was also charged with insulting the national flag and
remanded in police custody till Sunday.
The cartoonist has been participating in the anti-corruption movement
led by campaigner Anna Hazare.
India's media and prominent citizens have condemned Mr Trivedi's
arrest, calling it a "wrongfulact".
"From the information I have gathered, the cartoonist did
nothingillegal, and in fact, arresting him wasan illegal act,"
Chairman of Press Council of India Markandey Katju told The Hindu
newspaper.
"A wrongful arrest is a serious crime under the Indian Penal Code, and
it is those who arrested him who should be arrested."
Mr Katju, a former Supreme Court judge, asked how drawing a
cartooncould be considered a crime and saidpoliticians should learn to
accept criticism.
"Either the allegation is true, in which case you deserve it; or it is
false, in which case, you ignore it. This kind of behaviour is not
acceptable in a democracy," he said.
Senior journalist and the editor of CNN-IBN news channel Rajdeep
Sardesai said he found it "amusing, but also very dangerous that you
can get away with hate speech in this country, but parody and
political satire leads to immediate arrest".
A former senior police officer and lawyer YP Singh told the Mint
newspaper that from "what I have heard, it seems he [Mr Trivedi] can
be booked at the most under a law to prevent insults to national
honour and not on serious charges like sedition, which attract much
harsher punishment".
If proved, a sedition charge can invite a three-year prison term in India.
The micro-blogging site Twitter wasalso full of messages criticising
Mr Trivedi's arrest.
Police held him acting on on a complaint by a Mumbai-based lawyer who
said his cartoons were anti-national.
Earlier this year, a website carrying Mr Trivedi's anti-corruption
cartoonswas banned by the police in Mumbai, reports say.
In April, Indian police arrested a professor in Calcutta for allegedly
posting on the internet cartoons ridiculing West Bengal Chief
MinisterMamata Banerjee. He was later released.