PFI protest slogan video: Pune police takes U-turn, says sedition charge not invoked

In a Uturn the Pune police on Sunday evening denied adding the sedition charge in connection with a case against the Popular Front of India PFI activists and the alleged raising of proPakistan slogans during a protest organised here by the outfitEarlier senior inspector Pratap Mankar of the Bundgarden police station where the case has been registered said section 124A punishment for sedition of the Indian Penal Code IPC has been added in the case but Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone II Sagar Patil later made it clear that the charge has not been slappedPolice had registered the case against 6070 suspected PFI activists for unlawful assembly in connection with the protest held outside the district collectors office on Friday Mankar said the police have added IPC sections 124A sedition 109 act committed in conseshyquence of abetment 120B criminal conspiracy 153 A and B promoting enmity between different groups in the First Information Report FIRHowever DCP Patil later said We did not add section 124A in the case The Supreme Court order says this section cannot be invoked as one case pertaining to this is already going on in the court The apex court had in May put on hold the colonialera penal law on sedition till an appropriate government forum reexamines it and directed the Centre and states not to register any fresh FIR invoking the offenceAlso Read Aaditya Thackeray attacks Shinde govt over proPakistan slogansA video had surfaced on social media which purportedly shows that the Pakistan Zindabad slogan was raised a couple of times when the agitating PFI activists were being bundled into a police vehicle on FridayThe protest was organised against the recent nationwide raids on the outfit and the arrest of its activists During the protest the police detained around 40 protestersPatil said earlier in the day that some videos were circulating on social media and a thorough investigation was being conductedThe videos which were available on social media will be sent for forensic investigation and we will take strict action he saidEarlier on Sunday Maharashtra Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed the Pune police commissioner to slap the sedition chargeWe do not support such slogans The antiIndia slogans will not be tolerated in the state as well as in the country I have instructed the Pune police commissioner to file a case invoking sedition in the matter he told reporters in PuneThe raising of controversial slogans had led to a huge outrage with leaders from BJP and MNS demanding stringent action Congress had demanded a ban on organisations like PFIIn a massive crackdown on the PFI multiagency teams spearheaded by the National Investigation Agency NIA had on Thursday arrested 106 leaders and activists of the radical Islamic outfit in nearsimultaneous raids in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the countryMaharashtra and Karnataka accounted for 20 arrests each Tamil Nadu 10 Assam 9 Uttar Pradesh 8 Andhra Pradesh 5 Madhya Pradesh 4 Puducherry and Delhi 3 each and Rajasthan 2This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever