Sharjeel Usmani was booked under IPC Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), a non-bailable offence.
(File)A day after Pune police booked student leader Sharjeel Usmani for his alleged provocative speech at the Elgaar Parishad on January 30, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday said that the state police have launched a search for him and he will be arrested from ‘wherever he is’.
Usmani, a former student of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), was booked late on Tuesday night on a complaint filed by a BJP youth-wing leader from Pune. He was booked under IPC Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), a non-bailable offence.
Deshmukh said in the tweet on Wednesday, “Police have examined the clipping of the objectionable speech by Sharjeel Usmani, which he delivered at Elgaar Parishad held in Pune on January 30. An offence has been registered against him. He is currently out of Maharashtra. He will be arrested from wherever he is. Police are searching for him.”
Apart from Usmani, other keynote speakers at the conference were author Arundhati Roy, former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, journalist Prashant Kanojia, Dalit activist Satyabhama Suryawanshi from Latur, retired High Court judge BG Kolse Patil and retired IPS officer S MMushrif, among others.
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On Tuesday, former CM and current Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Devendra Fadnavis wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, seeking action against Usmani. The party’s Maharashtra unit chief Chandrakant Patil followed up with a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday, demanding action against the student leader.
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