Sikha Sarma
GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court, while observing that Assamese writer Sikha Sarma had expressed her personal views on the use of the term ‘Swahid/martyr’, granted bail to the 48-year-old writer, who was arrested here on April 6 on charges of sedition and other offences for an alleged Facebook post on security forces after 22 personnel were killed in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh.
According to the FIR, Sarma, known to be vocal on social media, in an FB post on April 5 "maligned and disregarded the sacrifice of martyrs by urging the ‘media’ not to generate public sentiments in their favour and not to term them as ‘swahids’ as they are drawing salary for the services they are providing to the nation".