53-Year-Old Man Arrested, Charged With Sedition In Chhattisgarh Over FB Post On Power Cuts

A 53-year-old man was arrested and charged with sedition in Chhattisgarh for allegedly spreading canards over social media about the state government’s connivance with inverter companies to cut power supply, reports The Times of India.

Mangelal Agarwal was arrested under the IPC sections 124 A (sedition) and 505 (1) (2) (intent to incite) following a complaint filed by the Chhattisgarh State Power Holding Company Limited (CSPHCL).

The complaint had been filed after a video of Agarwal had gone viral in which he was allegedly spreading rumours and false information. In the video Mangelal had alleged that the inverter companies had given money to the Chhattisgarh government to cut power supply for 10-15 minutes every two hours.

The accused Agarwal was sent on a 5-day remand on Friday (14 June) after he was produced before a local court by the police. Upon the development, the opposition party in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the state government of suppressing freedom of expression.

Later Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel intervened and directed the police to withdraw the sedition charge against Agarwal.