Patna: Sedition case against two groups over CAA-NRC 'lessons'
The Patna Police has filed a case of sedition against two voluntary groups based in the city for imparting "provocative and anti-national" lessons on CAA-NRC to students at a Danapur residential school. The case was filed after the child rights body - National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) - took cognizance of the matter. Here are more details on this.
The case has been registered at the Danapur Police station against two groups - Umbrella Foundation and KDDC - following a letter by the NCPCR to the Bihar DGP SK Singhal under IPC Sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), and under the Juvenile Justice Act. However, no arrests have been made yet, a police officer told The Indian Express.
The NCPCR had conducted inspections on February 15 and 25 at the Danapur residential school that offers its space to the said voluntary groups so as to carry out classes for around 60 girls aged between six and 18 years. The space has reportedly been arranged by the Bihar government under the Right to Education Act.
The child rights body said it had checked the homework registers of some students and found that they had "interpreted" CAA-NRC wrongly. One student had allegedly written, "I am against NRC. If I have no home, where can I keep documents." NCPCR Chairperson Priyank Kanoongo in a letter to the Patna Police said that such lessons "would (turn) students against laws of the land."
"No individual has been named (in the FIR). Police teams have come and spoken to the staffers. Students and their parents are worried," said Santosh Mahto, who is reportedly associated with the classes held at the Danapur school.
The CAA or the Citizenship Amendment Act expedites Indian citizenship for non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Separately, NRC or the National Register of Citizens is a record of Indian citizens that helps in identifying illegal immigrants. The legislation had been criticized for making religion a basis for citizenship, triggering widespread protests across the country between late 2019 and early 2020.
