A policeman stands guard outside the French satirical weekly ‘Charlie Hebdo’ in Paris in this February 9, 2006 file photo.
Mumbai: Police have arrested and bailed the editor of an Urdu newspaper in Mumbai for reprinting a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, police said Thursday.
Shirin Dalvi, editor of the Mumbai edition of the daily Avadhnama newspaper, was arrested by police in the town of Mumbra in Thane district.
The caricature was carried on the front page of the January 17 issue of the Urdu Daily Avadhnama published from Mumbai.
A resident of Mumbra complained to the Mumbra police after he reportedly saw the paper on the stands in Govandi. A complaint was also filed at Lower Parel police station, informed a police official.
Dalvi was booked for outraging religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion with malicious intent under Section 295 A of the Indian Penal Code. Dalvi was presented before the court that granted her bail.
“The section in the FIR registered against her is bailable, hence the court granted her bail,” informed a police official from Mumbra.
Dalvi, who later spoke to the media here, said she had made a mistake but had no intention of hurting religious sentiments.
Apart from the the Rashtriya Ulema Council activists, the Urdu Patrakar Sangh, an Urdu language journalists’ association, had also demanded the arrest of the editor and publisher.
