Bidar sedition case: Siddaramaiah detained during Congress march to CM Yediyurappa's house

Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah was detained on Saturday as party leaders tried to take out a march to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's residence in Bengaluru to protest against the Bihar sedition case.

Karnataka Congress leaders Dinesh Gundu Rao, Rizwan Arshad and K Suresh were also detained by the cops near Race Course road.

On Friday, a Karnataka court ordered that the mother of a 11-year-old student and the headmistress of a private school in Bidar, who were arrested on January 30 over an anti-CAA play staged in the school, be released on conditional bail.

The women were arrested after ABVP activist Nilesh Rakshyal filed a police complaint alleging the students were used to promote anti-national sentiments and some children spoke of hitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi with slippers to depict opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The play was held on January 21 as part of annual day celebrations.

The activist said in his complaint that he saw a video of the play enacted by students of the school on the social media account of a journalist.

The police in Bidar registered a complaint of sedition and breach of peace following the complaint. Besides the two women, the police also booked the management of the school and journalist Mohammed Yousuf Raheem on whose social media page the complainant found the video. Police said that the mother of the Class V student added dialogues that were not part of the original script for the play and that the child uttered unconstitutional words.

During the investigation, the police questioned dozens of children at the school and have been accused of violation of child rights by the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

(Inputs and image from theindianexpress)