Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Oct 3: An FIR was lodged here on Thursday against nearly 50 celebrities, including Ramchandra Guha, Mani Ratnam and Aparna Sen, who had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concern over the growing incidents of mob lynching, police said.

The case was lodged after an order was passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate Surya Kant Tiwari two months ago on a petition filed by local advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha.

"The CJM had passed the order on August 20, accepting my petition upon the receipt of which an FIR was lodged today at the Sadar police station here," Ojha said.

He said nearly 50 signatories of the letter were named as accused in his petition in which they allegedly "tarnished the image of the country and undermined the impressive performance of the prime minister" besides "supporting secessionist tendencies".

The police said the FIR was lodged under sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those relating to sedition, public nuisance, hurting religious feelings and insulting with an intent to provoke breach of peace.

The letter was written by 49 eminent personalities, including filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal, actor Soumitra Chatterjee as well as vocalist Shubha Mudgal in July this year.

It had said that the lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately, while stressing that there was "no democracy without dissent".

It also noted that Jai Shri Ram had been reduced to a "provocative war cry".

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Kolkata (PTI): The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education on Thursday announced the results of its Class 12 examination, which recorded an overall pass percentage of 91.23 per cent.

The results included those of the candidates from the fourth semester under the new system, supplementary candidates of the third semester, and students appearing under the old annual examination pattern.

While the pass percentage among girls stood at 92.47 per cent, boys recorded a pass percentage of 89.71 per cent.

As many as 64 candidates -- including 56 boys and eight girls -- featured in the top 10 list. Adrito Pal of Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya secured the first rank in the state by scoring 496 out of 500 marks.

Jishnu Kundu of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith Purulia and Ritobrata Nath of Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya secured the second rank with 495 marks each.

Candidates dissatisfied with their fourth-semester results would be allowed to reappear in the examination next year after surrendering the current year's result.

According to official data, a total of 7,10,811 candidates appeared for the higher secondary examination this year.

Of them, 6,35,864 students appeared in the final semester examination under the new system, 59,452 candidates took the supplementary examination for the second semester, and 15,495 students appeared under the old annual examination pattern.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari congratulated all students who have passed the higher secondary examination in a post on X.

"Your hard work, perseverance, and self-confidence have taken the form of success. May the success inspire you to dream even bigger on the path ahead. I wish that your future be bright, that you get success in every field and that you bring glory to your family, society, and state," he wrote on social media.