Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi arrested by Mumbai police for offensive depiction of national emblems

10 Sep 2012

Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested by Mumbai police yesterday on charges of sedition for cartoons caricaturing parliament, and depicting  the national emblem with wolves dripping blood from their mouths during an India Against Corruption (IAC) protest and posting them on a social networking site.

He was remanded in police custody till 16 September after being produced before a holiday court on Sunday.

According to the Bandra-Kurla Complex police, Trivedi had put up the caricatures in the form of posters at an IAC protest in December 2011 at the MMRDA grounds.

"The cartoons by Trivedi depicted Parliament as a commode and showed the national emblem with wolves instead of lions. The cartoons were obviously aimed at creating unrest in the society," said C Bhosale, senior inspector of police.

A complaint was filed against trivedi by lawyer Amit Arvind Katarnavre, who approached the police in January, a complaint was filed against Trivedi on 30 January under relevent sections of the Indian Penal Code, the National Emblem Act and the Information Technology Act.

"We had been trying to trace Trivedi, but to no avail. In August, the Bandra metropolitan court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Trivedi," said Bhosale.