Sedition case against 50 celebrities

An FIR has been lodged against 50 celebrities, including Mani Ratnam, Ramachandra Guha and Aparna Sen for the open letter, they had penned to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the increasing incidents of mob lynching. The FIR was lodged in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Thursday.

According to police sources, the FIR was lodgedunder several sections of IPC, including those related to sedition, publicnuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with intent to provokebreach of peace.

Advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha, who filed a petition againstthe open letter, accused that the 50 signatories allegedly tarnished the imageof the country and undermined the impressive performance of the Prime Minister.He also accused that they have supported secessionist tendencies.

It may be mentioned here that the celebrities including Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal, actor Soumitra Chatterjee, and others wrote the letter in July this year.

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