Keeping Bhagat Singh’s book is not illegal.

Bangalore. The tribal father and son, who were arrested from Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district in 2012 for helping the Naxalites, have been acquitted by the district court. In the case, the police could not prove that the two had links with the Naxalites, due to which the court gave its verdict. However, in the case, the father-son got technical bail in the year 2012. During that time the police had failed to file the charge sheet even after completion of 90 days of judicial custody.

23-year-old Vithal Malekudiya (now 32-years) and his father Lingappa Malekudiya were arrested 9 years ago by the anti-Naxal unit of Karnataka Police on 3 March 2012. The court found that most of the material recovered from his possession was articles, which were ‘essential for his daily livelihood.’ Vithal was a student of journalism at the time of his arrest. Now he is a journalist and working with a leading daily newspaper in Kannada language.

A book written on Bhagat Singh in the form of Vitthal’s hostel, a letter demanding boycott of parliamentary elections till basic facilities are not provided in his area and some newspaper reports. The court said, “There is no prohibition under the law to keep books of Bhagat Singh… Reading such newspapers is not prohibited under the law.”

A senior police officer had received ‘news’ that the father-son duo was cooperating with the five Naxalites for whom they are conducting a search operation in the area. The father and son were charged with criminal conspiracy and sedition under the Indian Penal Code and terrorism under the UAPA. The names of these five alleged Naxalites are Vikram Gowda, Pradeepa, John, Prabha and Sundari. The names of these five were also included in the FIR, but they were never arrested.

After being acquitted in the case, Vitthal says, ‘I am very happy to be acquitted in the case. We fought for 9 years to get acquitted and fought a big fight. We were shown as Naxal extremists, but there were no points in the chargesheet to show these allegations. Our innocence has been proved.’ Vitthal told that he was present in every hearing.

At the time of his arrest, Vithal was in the second semester of his Masters course in Journalism at Mangalore University. He was in jail from March to June and in 2012 he had to make rounds of the courts to get permission for the examinations. He says, ‘I was taken with handcuffs to the examination and it caused a lot of controversy at that time.’ Vitthal completed his studies in 2016.