New Delhi: More than 500 members of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) of Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) along with academicians and other staffs demanded that case against 49 known personalities who had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be dropped.
In a letter written to PMO, the NSUI observed that the charges against the 49 personalities are against Article 19 which preserves rights regarding freedom of speech and expression.
Read: Sedition case filed against 49 celebrities for writing letter to PM Modi on mob lynching
NSUI member Prashant Kumar said, "We demand that the case against 49 intellectuals who wrote to Prime Minister on mob lynching should be dropped. We asked the Prime Minister to protect the values embedded in the Constitution including Fundamental Right of Freedom of Speech and Expression embedded under Article 19 (1)(a). If we anyone raises his voice against mob-lynching, how could it become a task of anti-nationalism? If anyone files a complaint against the voice, then the ruling government must intervene in the case and take proper action so that the rights of a citizen can be preserved."
An FIR was lodged at Bihar's Muzaffarpur Sadar Police Station on September 27 following an order passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate on a complaint by local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha.
In July, forty-nine known personalities including writer Ramchandra Guha and filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Shyam Benegal, Aparna Sen and Anurag Kashyap and others had written to the Prime Minister expressing their concern over the incidents of lynching.
