NEW DELHI – A school principal and two others in India have been charged with sedition for showing parts of Kashmir within the borders of Pakistan and China, police said on Wednesday.
The principal was arrested on Monday along with the school’s owner and a printing press owner following a complaint by a right-wing Hindu activist, who spotted the map in a school diary.
Police said hundreds of diaries were printed by the private Green Bells Public School in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, showing parts of Kashmir within the borders of Pakistan and China.
New Delhi imposes tight restrictions on all printed maps, insisting they show all of Kashmir as being within Indian borders.
“All of them have been charged with sedition and acting against the national interest,” said Satish Dwivedi, a senior police officer in Shahdol district, where the men were arrested.
The accused were denied bail by a court on Tuesday, the officer said. He added that they claimed the map had been printed by mistake.
If found guilty, the accused could be jailed for life under India’s controversial sedition law.
