Anirban Roy Choudhury 

Journalist and HRD

Assam

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on December 30, 2021, regarding the misuse of law and fabricated sedition charges against journalist Anirban Roy Choudhury for his editorial piece in his newspaper.

This incident was begun when Mr. Chaudhary wrote an editorial condemning the manner and reason of the arrest of Mr. Pradip Dutta Roy founder of Barak Democratic Front, for being a vocal critic against the imposition of the Assamese language in Barak Valley. After the editorial publication, two uniformed police personnel from Silchar Police Station came to Mr. Choudhury’s residence in Meherpur and issued a notice under IPC 41(A) based on a complaint filed by Mr. Santanu Sutradhar against him on December 04. They asked him to visit the police station on December 06. When he reached the police station, he was interrogated for an hour about his article. During the interrogation, he was asked to remove the article from the website, which he refused. After that, the police registered an FIR under IPC sections 153A, 124A, 501, and 505(2) against him. 

We believe that all the charges in the FIR are completely fake. The article clearly talks about the freedom to exercise the Bengali language in Barak valley within the Indian Constitution. Charging a journalist with sedition for his published article violates article 19 (a) -the right to freedom of speech and expression-enshrined in our Constitution. The fabricated charges against him show that the Assam Police are severely abusing their power to stop journalists critical of the government.