Court Seeks Police Statement In Lakshadweep Filmmaker's Bail Plea In Sedition Case

An FIR was registered against filmmaker Aisha Sultana on sedition charges based on a complaint that she said in a TV debate that the Centre deployed COVID as a "bio weapon" against people of Lakshadweep.

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the Kavaratti Police of Lakshadweep to file a statement in the anticipatory bail petition filed by filmmaker Aisha Sultana in the sedition case against her. Justice Ashok Menon heard the matter today and posted it for further hearing on June 17. An FIR was registered against the filmmaker by the Kavaratti police on sedition charges based on a complaint by BJP's Lakshadweep unit president C Abdul Khader Haji against Ms Sultana for stating in a TV debate that the Centre deployed COVID as a "bio weapon" against people of Lakshadweep. The bail plea states, "I made the "bio-weapon" remark in the context of criticizing the administration relaxing the COVID-19 protocol, which led to a sharp increase of pandemic cases in the island, where there had been not even a single COVID case till January 2021. Lakshadweep is seeing an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases due to the relaxations in the quarantine protocol, and it is in this context that the alleged remarks were made."