Ex-Himachal legislator booked for sedition

Shimla: Former Himachal Pradesh legislator and Congress leader Neeraj Bharti were arrested for allegedly posting "anti-national and objectionable" content on social networking site Facebook after the violent face-off between India and China.

He was slapped with sedition charges and would be produced in a Shimla court on Saturday.

In a series of posts, he made offensive comments against the Prime Minister and the RSS after the face-off between India and China in the Galwan valley of Ladakh.

Bharti, who was the chief parliamentary secretary in the previous Congress government in the state, was summoned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) here for questioning.

After questioning for three days, he was arrested on Friday evening.

He will be produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court later in the day, an official told IANS.

Former legislator from Jawali in Kangra district was arrested under Sections 124-A (sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.

The former legislator is not new to controversies.

He had been targeting the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even his party leaders through his posts on social media.

His father Chander Kumar, a former Member of Parliament, is a prominent OBC leader from the state.

"The state government is trying to silence the opposition leaders. The case against my son is politically motivated," Kumar told the media.