Overview
- BJP leaders filed multiple police complaints on Sunday seeking the arrest of actress Sreelekha Mitra for holding a poster at a Kolkata students’ protest.
- The complaints allege the poster showed a derogatory caricature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and invoke sections 352, 353 and 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
- Police have accepted the complaints for preliminary inquiry but, according to reporting, an FIR has not yet been registered.
- Mitra denies deliberate wrongdoing and says she could not clearly see the poster because she forgot her prescription glasses and the photograph was taken hurriedly during a baton charge.
- The photograph was taken during a July 24 students’ rally against an alleged NEET paper leak that led to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation and could prompt court fights over protest speech and celebrity involvement.