A group of writers on Friday termed the confiscation of Communist literature at a book fair in Chandrapur in Maharashtra last week as an “assault on freedom of expression”. “The seizure of books is undemocratic and condemnable. The books they call anti-national can be found at any Central Library,” said Hindi poet Ashok Vajpayi. Last week, a police contingent came to the Danish Books stall at the fair and seized over 200 books, which they found “objectionable”. Publisher Sunita Narayan was later questioned for many hours, who has since been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Law.

“Sunita was found selling provocative and anti-national books, which calls for overthrowing the system,” Chandrapur SP Ravindra Kadam said. He said her links with left-wing extremists were also being probed. However, Sunita said the police had harassed and interrogated her for many days. “The seized books were written by Clara Zetkin, Bhagat Singh and Che Guevera, who are not banned anywhere. This is a shame on the govt,” she said.