Bengaluru: As many as 129 lawyers from across the state have extended support to argue for Nalini Balakumar, the woman who was booked on sedition charges for holding a ‘Free Kashmir’ poster during an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest in Mysuru.
Last week, the Mysore Bar Association announced that its lawyers would not represent Balakumar as she was involved in ‘anti-national activities’. The association’s president Anand Kumar even requested lawyers from outside to not take up her case.
However, a Bengaluru-based lawyer Jagdish, who was accompanied by several others from the profession, submitted Balakumar’s bail application before the Second Additional Metropolitan and District Court in Mysuru on Monday.
"If nobody represents her, the case will simply be held up. Let the case go for trial and let the court give its decision. The truth will then come out. If someone has done something wrong, let there be a punishment for it. If someone has done no wrong, let there be justice,” Jagdish told reporters outside the court.
Balakumar, an alumna of University of Mysore, had taken part in an anti-CAA protest on campus called by the Dalit Students’ Association and Mysore University Research Students Association on January 8.
Police took up a suo moto case against the organisers, naming one Maridevaiah and unknown others under IPC sections 124A (sedition) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention). Nalini was later identified through videos and detained.
Last Friday, Balakumar secured an interim conditional bail, but her lawyer withdrew from the case soon after.
"Whatever the bar associations has decided, it’s up to its members. I do not have any personal differences with them, I'm simply doing my job as a lawyer," Jagdish said.
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