Case against Hazare for showing 'disrespect' to national flag

A local court today directed the police to register a case against social activist Anna Hazare for allegedly showing disrespect to the National Flag during his visit here on July 29.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Narendra Bahadur Prasad directed the Line Bazar police to register the case and probe the matter.

The court's direction came on a petition filed by a local lawyer Himanshu Srivastava.

In his complaint, Srivastava has alleged that Hazare had come to a college here to address a meeting during his 'Jantatra Yatra' on a vehicle, on which a full size national tricolour was pasted. The meeting went on till 8 PM and this amounted to showing disrespect to the flag.

Earlier, a delegation of local lawyers had also met the Superintendent of Police stressing that though they were supporters of Hazare's anti-corruption campaign and had therefore gone to the meeting, they were hurt by the disrespect of the National Flag at the meeting and demanded lodging a case.

According to the rules, the national tricolour should be hoisted from sunrise to sunset and not beyond that.