Kerala HC grants interim protection to Lakshadweep filmmaker Aisha Sultana in sedition case

On Thursday, 17 June, the Kerala High Court granted Lakshadweep filmmaker Aisha Sultana interim protection from arrest for a week. According to  Bar And Bench, the protection was granted by a single-judge Bench of Justice Ashok Menon. While granting her interim protection from arrest, the Bench has directed the filmmaker to cooperate with the investigation. Sultana has been asked to appear for interrogation before the Lakshadweep Police as required under Section 41A of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The publication further mentions that the court has said if Sultana is arrested after the interrogation then she is going to be released on anticipatory bail for one week. This development comes after an FIR was filed against Sultana in a sedition case. The case was filed by C Abdul Khader Haji who is the Lakshadweep unit president of BJP. Reportedly, during a chat show, the filmmaker had said that the Central government has used the administrator of Lakshadweep Praful K Patel as a bio-weapon against the people of the union territory. Speaking about the Covid-19 cases in the UT, Sultana had said that the Centre has ‘deployed a ‘bioweapon’ in Lakshadweep. She had alleged that there were zero cases in the UT but now it is reporting a daily spike in the number of Covid-19 cases. After facing protests from BJP members, the filmmaker has defended her comments and said that she is going to continue her fight. Sultana has worked on several movies in the Malayalam film industry as an assistant director. The New Indian Express had reported in August 2020 that she has made her directorial debut with a film titled Flush.