Cartoonist Aseem sent to police custody over controversial national emblem sketches

Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, who was arrested on the basis of complaints against him for insulting national symbols in his anti-corruption cartoons, was on Sunday placed in police custody for a week by a Mumbai court.

He was charged with sedition under Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code, which is a non-bailable offence.

He was also charged under the IT Act and the 1971 National Emblem Act.

The cartoons by Trivedi reportedly depicted Parliament as a commode and showed the national emblem with wolves instead of lions.

The police claimed that Trivedi had earlier exhibited similar cartoons at a rally organised by India Against Corruption (IAC) at the MMRDA grounds in Mumbai in December 2011.