Ujjain: Police on Sunday invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against four persons out of ten arrested so far for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans during a Muharram event in Ujjain of Madhya Pradesh, a senior police officer said.
The development comes a day after some right-wing organisations and religious leaders clad in saffron staged demonstrations, torched effigies of Pakistan, and demanded tough action by the police against those people who had raised pro-Pakistan slogans in the Geeta Colony area on the night of August 19.
Ujjain superintendent of police Satyendra Shukla confirmed to PTI that the NSA has been invoked on four persons who among others had allegedly shouted the slogans.
He refused to give names of the accused.
The district collector invoked the NSA on four accused on the recommendation of the police, police sources said.
Shukla said police have arrested ten people for sloganeering so far.
Reacting to the incident on Friday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said his government would not tolerate a “Taliban-like” mindset.
When asked if the sloganeering was a reaction to the district administration’s decision to ban all public processions because of the coronavirus pandemic, Ujjain police had denied any such link.
Police had booked over a dozen people under sections 124 (a) (sedition) and 153 (provocation which can cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code.
“We have identified 16 persons who raised the slogans. Efforts are on to identify others,” Shukla said.
CM Chouhan had also said the government has taken a tough stand vis-a-vis the Ujjain incident.
Also read: ‘Failed’ law, ‘misused to stifle dissent’: Ex-SC judges speak out against UAPA, sedition, NSA