The Hindu : New Delhi News : FIR for `defacement'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 30, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

FIR for `defacement'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC.29. Charged with defacement of public property, a First Information Report has been registered against the national secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, Annie Raja.

According to the Parliament Street police station -- where the FIR has been registered -- Ms. Raja was involved in a demonstration on December 21 near Jantar Mantar on the issue of People's Action for Employment Guarantee. During the demonstration, banners were apparently hung from electric poles, which amounts to defacement of public property. According to the police, as the "organiser'' of the demonstration, the onus falls on Ms. Raja. However, questioning such action against her, Ms. Raja said: "Someone came to arrest me today. Since I was not there, I spoke to the police later. They told me that they would come to meet me tomorrow. This was a national level demonstration. There were more than 100 organisations that participated in the demonstration. Why have they only come after me?''

Further she questioned: "What defacement did we do? There were about 3,000 banners and we had signatures of many people on them. We hung the banners from tree branches all along the street, but then everyone hangs them. It was a peaceful demonstration and we did not destroy anything. This is a democracy.''

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