Cartoonist targets corruption, sent to police custody

Cartoonist targets corruption, sent to police custody

Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was on Sunday sent to one week police custody by a Mumbai court over charges that his sketches insulted national symbols and were seditious.
Trivedi, 25, had surrendered at the Bandra Kurla Complex police station in Mumbai on Saturday. The Indian Express reports Trivedi, a resident of Kanpur, has also been charged with sedition in Maharashtra.

His cartoons were displayed at the anti-corruption protests led by activist Anna Hazare in Mumbai last December. Trivedi, a freelancer, sketched 'Mother India' dressed in a tri-colour sari while a politician and a bureaucrat pin her down and urge "the beast of corruption" to assault her. The cartoon is called 'gang rape of Mother India'. Another cartoon shows the lions in Ashoka Chakra, the national emblem, replaced with foxes. The motto 'Satyamev Jayate' (truth triumphs) has been replaced with 'Brashtamev Jayate' (corruption triumphs). Another cartoon shows Parliament as a 'national toilet'.

Trivedi, a recipient of this year's 'Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award' given by the US-based Cartoonists Rights Network International, has said that his cartoons were against politicians and he didn't intend to insult national symbols. His website was shut down but his cartoons are available on a Facebook page.