Screening BBC docu: Activist on bail seeks quashing of FIR

New Delhi, April 19: An activist arrested for screening banned documentary "India's Daughter" in Delhi has approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against him.

21-year-old Ketan Dixit, who sought stay on the proceedings and investigation initiated against him after lodging of the case on March 12, said he was illegally arrested and detained which "clearly violates" his rights under the Constitution.

The youth in his plea before a bench of Justice Manmohan Singh also challenged his arrest by Delhi Police and said that he be compensated for the "unnecessary harassment".

"The present case is a fit case for the intervention of the high court. The petitioner (Dixit) has already suffered unnecessary harassment at the hands of Delhi Police due to the registration of a false and frivolous FIR and illegal detention. [Delhi Gangrape & BBC Documentary: Shocking info about Nirbhaya's friend ignites controversy]

"It is necessary in the interest of justice that the same be quashed as whatever is alleged of the petitioner to have committed was based on goodwill and awareness promotion in the society," the petitioner's counsel told the court.

The documentary by filmmaker Leslee Udwin, based on the December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in Delhi, was screened in village Awalkheda near Agra on March 8.

After the telecast, Uttar Pradesh Police called Dixit for questioning.

His laptop, pen drive and projector were seized, but he was let off after five hours, the plea said.

Four days later, on March 12, the film was screened at Delhi's Ravidas camp where three of the five men convicted in the case lived.

An FIR was registered in the case immediately. Police booked Dixit under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 228A (disclosure of identity of the victim of certain offences) of the IPC.

PTI