Shakira’s Maker Booked For Sedition

I am a citizen of the nation; I will cooperate with the police, says Assamese filmmaker Himangshu Prasad Das on Thursday after just coming out of the Panbazar Police station in Guwahati. This comes a day after Assam Police registered a suo moto case of sedition against Das for posting an open letter on social media platform Facebook, seeking help ofULFA-I chief Paresh Barua.

The case against Das was registered under various IPC sections including 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against the government), 121(A) (conspiracy to overawe by means of criminal force or), 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, etc). The police issued a notice to Das, asking him to appear before them on Thursday.

Speaking to Northeast Today, Das said that he had written the letter with an aim to create intellectual debate among the Assamese society. He also said that he had appealed to other regional organisations including the All Assam Student’s Union and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti among others.

Das’s recently released film Shakira Aahibo Bokultolor Bihuloi, which was running successfully across the state was seemingly taken down from halls due to the release of big budget Bollywood flicks Raees and Kaabil. This prompted a flurry of social media protests which was soon joined by Das. The letter, written in Assamese, had sought the banned ULFA-I chief’s intervention in saving the Assamese movie industry, which was going through a rough patch, but had seen some amount of resurgence recently during the last year. Das had asked through the letter not to take his film off screen as it was doing very well.