Owaisi condemns arrest of school headmistress, student's mother over school play in Karnataka
Bidar, Feb 1: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday condemned the arrest of a school headmistress and a student's mother in Karnataka for alleged involvement in staging a drama at the institution, portraying Prime Minister Narendra Modi in poor light over the CAA and NRC.
A sedition case has been slapped against the school in the matter, and Owaisi, who met the arrested women at Bidar, objected to the charge being filed in connection with a play.
"Earlier today, AIMIM MLA Kausar Mohiuddin, corporator Aziz sb., Yamin Khan & I met with arrested headmistress Fareeda Begum & students mother Najamunnisa in Bidar.
In a condemnable incident, they were arrested by Bidar police for sedition in connection with a school play," he tweeted.
The headmistress was unwell and the child was now being looked after by the landlord of the house as the childs mother is a widow, he said.
Owaisi also said he met the SP of Bidar and objected to the arrests and slapping of sedition charge for staging a school play.
The AIMIM chief claimed that the SP told him that the matter was under investigation and the sedition charge may be removed.
"I said this should have been done before arresting these women as they are local residents, how can a school play be a crime?" Owaisi said.
The police action came after they questioned the two women, a few staff members of the Shaheen School in the district headquarters town of Bidar and students on Thursday.
The arrested women were produced before a court which remanded them to judicial custody, police said on Friday.
The drama was staged by students of fourth, fifth and sixth standard on January 21.
A sedition case was booked by police on January 26 against the school, along with some other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on January 26, based on a complaint from social worker Neelesh Rakshyal.
The complainant has alleged the school authorities 'used' the students to perform a drama where they "abused" Modi in the context of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The play, uploaded on social media, had gone viral.
Met with SP Bidar. We strongly objected to arrest & sedition charge for a school play. He said it’s under investigation & sedition maybe removed
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) February 1, 2020
I said this should’ve been done before arresting these women as they are local residents,how can a school play be a crime? pic.twitter.com/dISDcadInf
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
