AGARTALA, Sep 18 (TIWN): Taking a jibe at the BJP led State Govt for arresting first year student of South Tripura District, former MP Jitendra Chaudhury said this is nothing but a total misuse of power by the Govt. “Just before few days on 7th September Supreme Court Justice Dipak Gupta criticized the Govt for arrests under IT Act, Section 66A whenever anyone is criticizing the Govt.

The Justice made it clear that nobody can be arrested for facebook posts. He also said Bishal Singh’s arrest at Sabroom is totally injustice and ill-attempted to snatch freedom-of-spech.

Such actions must be immediately stopped. MP Jitendra Chaudhury’s statement came after a college student in Tripura was arrested by police for allegedly using abusive word against CM Biplab Deb in WhatsApp chat which was leaked.The student has been identified as Bishal Sinha, a first year student in Sabroom college, under South Tripura. Police arrested him and registered a case under Section 294/504/500/506/120 (B) of Indian Penal Code and 67 B of IT Act.

At least 400 youths in Tripura were summoned in their local police stations for criticizing the State Government in last 2 months. They were called either after imposing cases on them or in relation of any other case, linking his/her post in facebook, twitter etc.

The allegation was brought by Congress leader Subal Bhowmik while addressing in a press conference at the Congress State Headquarter on Tuesday.

“The Govt is critical to their critics. It is so intolerant against criticism which not only affected the media rights in the state but also social media users are facing toughtimes”, said Bhowmik.

Back in 2018, November one poor man Dipak Debnath was arrested at night 2 am without any warrant just because he shared a news against BJP leaders. Also various opposition social media users were detained, one journalist Saikat Talapatra was arrested from Agartala Airport who not even put anyone’s name while hitting the opposite person.

On September 7, SC Justice Deepak Gupta, judge of Supreme Court, spoke at length about the chilling effect caused by sedition law on legitimate criticism on the organs of state. He also mentioned about the threat of contempt action stifling fair criticism of judiciary.

He was speaking at the a workshop organised by Praleen Public Charitable Trust at Ahmedabad, Justice Deepak Gupta of the Supreme Court spoke at length on the topic "Law of Sedition in India and Freedom of Expression".

Notably, Justice Gupta mentioned about the recent incidents of application of criminal law against rapper Hard Kaur, Bengal BJP leader Priyanka Sharma, Manipur journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem, Tamil film director Pa Ranjith etc, for voicing their opinions.