Writer and analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra has had the charges against him dropped, over a month after he was arrested. His lawyer Nikhil Mehra posted on Twitter that a chargesheet has been filed dropping Sections 295A and 153A of the Indian Penal Code. The trial court is now being moved for the formal release order.

According to India Today, “only yesterday, December 4 … the Odisha government said it would not grant the permission to prosecute Iyer-Mitra since the assembly had ‘forgiven’ him in the cases against him.” Iyer-Mitra was admitted to the hospital earlier this week on complaints of feeling unwell.

An official with the home department in Odisha told NDTV, “Taking into account his representation, the government decided not to accord sanction of prosecution in cases where prosecution has been sought for and also decided to take steps to withdraw other cases pending against him by following laid-down procedures.”