india

Updated: Oct 10, 2019 07:06 IST

The Muzaffarpur police Wednesday ordered closure of a sedition case lodged against close to 50 acclaimed artists and intellectuals who had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in curbing the rising incidents of mob lynching..

Muzaffarpur SSP Manoj Kumar Sinha said order had been issued by him for closure of the case as investigation so far revealed that allegations were levelled out of “mischief” and “lacked substance”.

The FIR was lodged at the Sadar police station last week upon the order of the chief judicial magistrate which had forwarded a petition filed by local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha, who had named eminent personalities like Ramchandra Guha, Aparna Sen, Shyam Benegal and others.

The police said Ojha, an advocate, would also be booked for filing frivolous complaints.

ADG (headquarter) Jitendra Kumar said the police would seek Ojha’s prosecution under sections 182 and 211(relating to false information or false charge of offence) from the court.

The case, lodged days ago by the police on an order was passed by chief judicial magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari two months ago, had led to an outrage nationwide.

During case supervision by SSP Manoj Kumar, the complainant could not produce supporting documents or evidence, not even the alleged letter written by the persons named as accused.

Police sources in Muzaffarpur said Ojha had filed over 700 cases since he started his law practice in 1996. The accused in cases filed by Ojha include Amitabh Bachchan, Imran Khan, Manmohan Singh, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, and even Anna Hajare.