Indian cartoonist charged with sedition leaves prison

MUMBAI: An Indian cartoonist jailed on sedition charges was released from a Mumbai prison on bail Wednesday, four days after being arrested in a case that has outraged freedom of expression campaigners.

"Although I'm free, the battle will continue. Whenever there is an infringement of legal rights, our fight will continue," Aseem Trivedi told a crowd of reporters outside Arthur Road jail.

Trivedi, whose sketches often mock the government for corruption, accepted bail after the city's High Court said on Tuesday that he could be released on a bond of 5,000 rupees ($90).

His lawyer Vijay Hiremath told earlier on Wednesday that they were hopeful the charges would be dropped.

The arrest of Trivedi, a freelance cartoonist and anti-graft campaigner, sparked a backlash against the government, which has been accused of using colonial-era sedition laws to crush dissent.

Human Rights Watch joined the chorus of protest on Wednesday, calling for the "politically motivated" charges to be dropped immediately.

"Arresting cartoonists for their stinging satire is a hallmark of a dictatorship, not a democracy," Meenakshi Ganguly, the group's South Asia director, said.