12 December,2023 06:41 PM IST | Yavatmal | mid-day online correspondent
Sanjay Raut. File Pic
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has been booked on the charge of sedition and other offences for writing an objectionable article against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana', a senior official said on Tuesday, the PTI reported on Tuesday.
According to the PTI, the FIR was registered after Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Yavatmal district coordinator Nitin Bhutada lodged a complaint against the Rajya Sabha member, who is the executive editor of Saamana, the official said.
Hitting back, Sanjay Raut accused the BJP of "censorship", as per the PTI.
"The BJP had no right to say that it stood up against the Emergency because the fight was against such kind of censorship. The criticism in Saamana is political," he said.
In the complaint, Bhutada claimed that Sanjay Raut wrote the objectionable article on December 10.
The case was registered on Monday at Umarkhed police station in Yavatmal under sections 124 (A) (sedition), 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code, the police official said, the news agency reported.
"We have registered a case based on the complaint and will conduct a probe," he said, the news agency reported on Tuesday.
The law on sedition, which provides for a maximum jail term of life under section 124A of the IPC for creating disaffection towards the government, was brought into the penal code in 1890, a full 57 years before Independence and almost 30 years after the IPC came into being.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Raut, on Monday, claimed that the black money with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be Rs 1 lakh crore if a leader with INDIA bloc is found with Rs 200 crore. Raut, according to the PTI report, commented on the Income Tax department raids on premises linked to Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand.
Reportedly, the I-T sleuths during the raid, on the premises and a distillery business owned by his kin, found alleged unaccounted cash which has thus far netted more than Rs 335 crore.
(with PTI inputs)
