Bombay High Court restrains police from acting against Shirin Dalvi

The Bombay high court on Monday restrained the Maharashtra Police from taking any coercive steps against Shirin Dalvi, ex-editor of Urdu newspaper Awadhnama, till February 11. It was hearing a petition filed by Dalvi, seeking to quash the complaints registered against her.

The now closed newspaper had carried the cover page of French weekly Charlie Hebdo on its front-page in its January 16 edition. After a series of complaints, the paper had issued an apology on January 17.

Following a series of FIRs registered against Dalvi in Mumbai, Thane and Malegaon, she moved the Bombay HC seeking quashing of cases against her. Advocate Mihir Desai argued before the court that all the FIRs against her be clubbed. He added that the court should direct the government not to take any coercive steps against Dalvi.

Public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde opposed the plea, by saying that the action of printing the cartoon was conscious. However, he did not have instructions about the investigations and thus, time was sought until the next date.

In her petition, Dalvi had prayed for transferring of all the FIRs to a single police station.