Mob lynching: FIR against 50 intellectuals who wrote open letter to PM Modi against it

An FIR has been lodged against about 50 signatories of an open letter to the Prime Minister raising worries over the rising culture of mob-lynching, where Jai Shree Ram is being used as a war cry.

This FIR has been lodged against eminent personalities ranging from academicians to artists, including Ramchandra Guha, Mani Ratnam and Aparna Sen.

The case was opened after it was passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari, when in July a petition was filed by local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha, according to News18.

"The CJM had passed the order on August 20, accepting my petition upon the receipt of which an FIR was lodged today at the Sadar police station here," Ojha said.

About 50 signatories of the letter were named as suspects in his PIL in which they purportedly "tarnished the image of the country and undermined the impressive performance of the prime minister" and were "supporting secessionist tendencies" reported News18.

The applicable laws were sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with an intent to provoke breach of peace; IPC sections 124A, Section 268, section 295A and section 504.

The letter was written by 49 eminent personalities, including filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal, actor Soumitra Chatterjee as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal in July this year.

Emphasising the importance of dissenting voices, the letter had said that there was "no democracy without dissent" It called for injustices such as the lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities to be curbed and acted on immediately. It also noted that Jai Shri Ram had been reduced to a "provocative war cry".