Himachal Pradesh Congress leader Neeraj Bharti, who was slapped with sedition charges for criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS, was sent to four-day police custody on Saturday.
Police on Friday arrested former MLA Bharti for allegedly posting “anti-national and objectionable” content on Facebook after violent face-off between India and China.
In a series of posts, he allegedly slammed the Prime Minister and the RSS after the face-off between India and China in the Galwan valley of Ladakh.
Bharti, who was the chief parliamentary secretary in the previous Congress government in the state, was summoned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for questioning.
After questioning for three days, he was arrested on Friday evening.
He has booked arrested under Sections 124-A (sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.
He had been targeting the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even his party leaders through his posts on the social media.
His father Chander Kumar, a former Member of Parliament, said, “The state government is trying to silence the opposition leaders. The case against my son is politically motivated.”
Several Congress activists in the state capital staged a protest on Saturday, demanding dropping of charges against him.