Arrests – Journalists

On April 19, Kamal Shukla hit the share button on a cartoon he saw on Facebook that lampooned the Union government and the Supreme Court for the apex court’s decision to reject petitions calling for an independent investigation into the mysterious death of special Central Bureau of Investigation judge Brijgopal Loya in 2014. At the time of his death, Loya was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter trial in which Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah was then an accused.

Claiming to be offended by the post, a resident of Rajasthan filed an online complaint. This eventually reached the police station in Kanker in North Bastar, where Shukla lives with his wife and children. On April 28, a first person report was lodged charging the journalist with sedition.

Speaking from Kanker, 50-year-old Shukla sounded amused at this new charge. But his voice also carried a trace of tension. “I believe that people who love their country and its democracy openly express their opinion when they see it being weakened,” he said. “The post was close to sharing my concern for the dwindling autonomy of the judiciary in the wake of the Loya case. How can this be considered anti-national? I would say those people should be considered anti-national who are not concerned about the growing interference of the government in the judiciary’s autonomy.”