The Guwahati Crime Branch has registered an FIR against journalist and YouTuber Abhisar Sharma after a local resident’s complaint claiming that Sharma mocked the Assam and central governments in a video.

The FIR invokes sections 152, 196, and 197 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

The complainant, 23-year-old Alok Barua of Ganeshguri’s Nayanpur locality, alleged that Sharma accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of indulging in communal politics, with “malicious intent to tarnish the image of elected governments”. Barua claimed the remarks were capable of provoking communal sentiments, creating distrust in governance, and spreading enmity between religious groups.

In a social media post, Sharma called the FIR “baseless” and said it would be challenged legally.

“In my show, I referred to a judge’s statement mentioning that the Assam government had allotted 3,000 bighas of land to Mahabal Cement, and I criticised this decision,” Sharma wrote. “I also referred, with facts, to CM Himanta Biswa Sarma’s communal politics – based on his own statements. This is the show on which the FIR has been filed.”

The Digipub News India Foundation has strongly condemned the FIR, calling the section 152 charge “an attack on democratic values and fundamental rights”.

“What is most alarming is the invocation of section 152 (sedition) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 – an archaic colonial law that the government itself has told the Supreme Court is outdated, irrelevant, and under reconsideration,” Digipub said in its statement.

The foundation demanded that the FIR be withdrawn immediately, all charges dropped, and the practice of intimidating journalists brought to an end.

The case comes days after the Assam police filed cases against The Wire’s journalists, including an FIR against Siddharth Varadarajan and senior journalist Karan Thapar, under some of the same BNS sections. The Editors Guild of India had condemned the police action, and several MPs issued a joint statement demanding that all such cases against journalists be withdrawn.

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