Anti-CAA Play: Charged With Sedition, Karnataka School Teacher & Parent Get Bail After 2 Weeks
Ending their over-two-week-long ordeal, two women, Fareeda Begum and Nazbunnisa who were booked under sedition charges by the Karnataka Police for staging an anti-CAA play in s school have been granted bail by a court in Bidra.
Though the duo was granted bail on Friday, they are yet to walk out of the district prison.
"We are yet to receive the court order on bail to release Fareeda Begum and Nazbunnisa. If we receive the court order today, the women can walk out of the prison by evening," told Bidar district prison Superintendent Shivaputra Hajimani to IANS.
The two women were granted bail on a personal bond of Rs one lakh with two sureties for the same amount and have also been directed not to leave the police jurisdiction without permission from the investigation officer.
Bidar Principal District and Sessions Court granted conditional bail to Begum, headmistress of the Shaheen Group of Institution's school and Nazbunnisa, a parent of one of the students in the anti-CAA play, in which the minor students allegedly abused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and were arrested on January 30.
The controversy erupted after the video of a play staged by the students in the school on January 21 was shared on social media.??
Nilesh Rakshala, an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad who made the complaint said children are being used to spread propaganda against CAA, NRC and insult the PM.?
Following the complaint the police had booked the school management for provocation, sedition and promotion of enmity under sections 504, 505(2), 124(A) and 153 (A) of the IPC.
It was not just the teacher and parent who were on the receiving end of the high-handed action of the authorities. Some 86 students, including some of them who were part of the play, were questioned by the police several times.
Police had reportedly questioned the children and staff about those who wrote the script and assigned to deliver specific dialogues.
Images of the school kids being quizzed by men in uniform had triggered massive outrage in the state.
Last week the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) has written a letter asking police to?stop questioning the schoolchildren.
KSCPCR had also criticized the police for placing Nazbunissa's nine-year-old girl in a neighbour¡¯s care.
Reacting to the bail Shaheen School CEO Thouseef Madikeri said he ¡°still couldn¡¯t believe a satire on the CAA and the proposed NRC attracted the charge of sedition and our children were interrogated for over five days¡±.
