The editor and the chairman of a magazine which published a cartoon of prophet Mohammed were Thursday remanded to judicial custody till March 3 in New Delhi. The editor of Senior India magazine Alok Tomar, who was arrested Wednesday night under IPC sections dealing with hurting religious sentiments and attempt to breach communal harmony, was remanded to 14-day judicial custody by local court.
The court also remanded to judicial custody the chairman of Senior India, Vijay Dixit. Dixit had been quoted by the Indian Express as saying that the cartoons were merely part of an article by Tomar which set out to criticise the Danish cartoons. Dixit said: "Our purpose was not to publish the cartoons to make fun of the prophet. Tomar had written an article denouncing the publishing of the cartoons. His only fault was that he published the controversial cartoons too."
Alok Tomar, according to the Hindu, was summoned for questioning at the Defence Colony police station after the police were informed that some objectionable material, including the cartoon, had been published in the January 28 issue of the magazine. The issue hit the stands on January 15.
After legal consultation, the Defence Colony police registered a case under Sections 153 (A) and 295 (A) of the Indian Penal Code and arrested Tomar for the publication of "objectionable material" that could incite violence. "We arrested Tomar on charges of hurting religious sentiments of a community," Anil Shukla, additional deputy commissioner of police, told Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).
Police sources said they were now in the process of seizing the copies of the magazine from news stands across the capital. The police, however, are yet to ascertain whether these were the same cartoons which had been published in Jyllands-Posten in September 2005.
Tomar's associates insisted the magazine, which isn't widely circulated, had no intention to offend Muslims, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The cartoon was reprinted to support an article that, on the contrary, argued the media should refrain from criticizing religious practices, said Sapnendra Sinha, a journalist friend of Tomar who was at a New Delhi court with Tomar's wife and lawyers to seek bail for the editor.
