The Karnataka High Court's Kalaburagi bench on Wednesday, June 14, quashed sedition charges against the management of a school in the Bidar district over a play staged by students of the primary section. The play, staged on January 21 2020, allegedly made comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was critical of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Registry of Citizens (NRC). Following the performance, the Bidar police arrested a teacher and the mother of an 11-year-old student of the Shaheen Primary and High School on charges of sedition.
An FIR was registered against the school management in the Bidar New Town police station in January 2020 accusing them of sedition and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, and race. In a petition filed by the school management, a Karnataka High Court bench comprising Justice Hemant Chandangoudar, quashed the case against them on June 14. Abdul Qadeer, Chairman of the Shaheen Group of Institutions expressed relief over the Karnataka High Court's decision. "I thank the advocates, the media for supporting us in the case during challenging times," he said. TNM is awaiting the detailed order copy in the case.
Ayesha*, an 11-year-old student who uttered critical dialogues against Prime Minister Narendra Modi was targeted after a video of the play was circulated in January 2020. A complaint was filed against the school management, Ayesha’s mother Nazbunissa, and Fareeda Begum, a teacher at the school. The mother and teacher were arrested on January 30, nine days after the play was staged, on charges of sedition, and remained in jail for two weeks before the district court granted them bail, stating in its order that there was no case of sedition.
The present quashing of the sedition charges against the school management comes after the Karnataka High Court's Bengaluru bench, in August 2021, made observations critical of the police investigation in the case. The bench comprising the then Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice NS Sanjay Gowda observed that the presence of policemen in uniforms, carrying weapons, while interrogating children in the school was a serious violation under the Juvenile Justice Act. The court also noted that the Special Juvenile Police Unit for Children sub-rule 5 states that police officers shall wear civilian clothes when interacting with children and for dealing with a girl child, women police personnel shall be engaged.
Read : Karnataka HC: Police interrogation of Bidar students in sedition case was a violation of JJ act
The observations were made during the hearings of a petition filed by Nayana Jyothi Jhawar, currently an MLA from the Mudigere constituency, questioning the presence of armed police officers while questioning children in the same case. The petition claimed that 85 students, some of whom were as young as nine years old, had to endure police questioning.
In an affidavit filed in court, the Karnataka police admitted that their officers erred while questioning students in the school multiple times. TNM was present at the school when investigating officers, led by the Bidar police station inspector Basaveshwara Hira, came to the school five times to interrogate students over the school play. The police asked questions about who scripted the play and chose the dialogues for it.
The Karnataka police later admitted that their interrogation violated rules as officers were uniformed and armed with weapons while questioning students. An affidavit filed by the police in the court named investigating officer Basaveshwara Hira and recommended disciplinary action against him.
The play, which led to the case, was performed in the Dakkani language by students of classes 4, 5, and 6 at Shaheen School. It questioned the need for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Registry of Citizens (NRC) at a time when protests had erupted in the country over the said laws. The play had a line criticising the Prime Minister, which was considered derogatory by right-wing activists who then filed a complaint with the police.
The said dialogue sequence between a grandmother and her granddaughter begins with the child telling her grandmother that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is asking for documents and that she will be sent out of the country if she is not able to produce them. The grandmother then responds that the documents are in the graveyard where her family is buried. and wonders how a man who once sold tea can ask her to prove that she belonged to the country. She utters a phrase and picks up a slipper, urging the child to hit back with slippers when they ask for documents.
The play then continues with the child asking a neighbour about arranging documents, to which the neighbour responds that a mouse ate their documents and a cat ate the mouse and a dog ate the cat and the municipality took away the dog, which meant that the documents were safe with the government. The neighbour also adds that the documents of the child’s family must have been in a garbage heap and that the municipality took that away too, which meant their documents too were safe with the government.