Articles & News

March 20, 2008

India jail stay stretches

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Rabindra Prasad Panda, the author of the controversial Oriya book on Prophet Muhammad, who was arrested in Calcutta, spent an extra day in the Choudwar circle jail, as his lawyers could not obtain necessary documents this morning.

The 71-year-old Panda, who faces charges of “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings” of a community was granted bail on Tuesday. But his lawyers, Amit Kumar Bose, Sumit Kumar Mohanty and Debakanta Mohanty could only reach Choudwar around 4.10pm as they failed to obtain the documents from the court of the district sessions judge in Cuttack in the forenoon.

“As the bail papers were submitted before 5pm he was detained for a day and would be released today,” jail superintendent D.D. Das told The Telegraph.

Panda was picked up by the Orissa police from his Salt Lake residence in Calcutta and brought to Cuttack on March 14 on the basis of a complaint lodged at Lalbag police station. The complaint had alleged inaccuracies in the Oriya book, Hazrat Muhammad, and a photo depicting the prophet on its cover.

Later, cases were registered against the author and publisher under Section 295 (a) IPC. The court of the Cuttack SDJM had refused to grant him bail and remanded him to jail on March 15. The author has been in remand since March 15.

Meanwhile, the publisher, Pitambar Mishra, who faces imprisonment up to three years, is still absconding.