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The Kerala Police on Tuesday, 24 May, arrested two people in connection with a case relating to allegedly provocative slogans being raised by a minor boy in a rally organised by the Popular Front of India (PFI) in Alappuzha on 21 May.
The video of the the boy raising the slogans had gone viral.
Earlier, Kerala Police had registered a case in connection with the same and had apprehended one person.
The developments come after the Kerala High Court expressed concerns about children being used in political and religious rallies.
"As of now, we have taken one person into custody. We are questioning him. Further action will follow," the police said, news agency PTI reported.
The First Information Report (FIR) was registered based on a complaint filed by Vijayakumar PK.
Sections 153-A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295-A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 505 (1) (b) (act against the public tranquility), 505 (1) (c), 505 (2), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 120 (o) of Kerala Police Act (KP Act) are included in the FIR.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had put pressure on the Kerala police to register an FIR.
However, as per PFI officials, they had a set of official slogans during a march in Alappuzha on Saturday.
"This slogan was not among them. A lot of workers from various places attended the march. When volunteers noticed this slogan, they prevented raising that slogan," PFI officials said, PTI reported.
The viral video has drawn flak from several quarters. Condemning the incident, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said in a tweet:
Expressing concern about children being used in political and religious rallies, a single-judge bench of Justice Gopinath P of the Kerala High Court on Monday had observed, "I just want to know if there is any law which prohibits this. These children will grow up with hatred inside them," LiveLaw reported.
Wondering how legal using children in such rallies is, Justice Gopinath stated, "Children are being forced to take part in political rallies and are made to voice all sorts of provocative slogans. That is some new kind of attraction, it seems. But how far is that legal?"
The bench had expressed upon these concerns while adjudicating upon a group of cases involving minors and offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
(With inputs from NDTV, LiveLaw, and PTI.)
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