Tricolour Cake Row: Case Filed Against Gogoi

By Rahul Karmakar

Guwahati, Feb 10  : The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) on Tuesday filed a case against Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and four others for having a cake designed like the national flag and eating it too. The court has fixed February 15 for a hearing to discuss the merit of the case.

AIUDF is a party catering to minorities and is headed by perfume baron Maulana Badruddin Ajmal.

Governor JB Patnaik and Gogoi were caught on camera cutting and consuming a large cake designed like the Tricolour at the Raj Bhavan on January 26. The Raj Bhavan had organized a VIP tea party to celebrate the 61st Republic Day.

“We’ve filed a case under 109/202 of the IPC and National Honour Act, 1971 in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate against Gogoi, his wife Dolly Gogoi, Chief Secretary PC Sarma and Additional DG of Assam Police Dilip Bora,” advocate and AIUDF working president Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury told Hindustan Times. “The case has been filed for insulting the national Tricolour.”

Patnaik was not dragged in owing to “constitutional complications”, Choudhury said, adding the onus was on President Prativa Devisinh Patil to take appropriate action.

Gogoi faces three years in prison if found guilty. “I am ready to go to jail, haven’t been there in a long, long time,” the CM quipped on the sidelines of the 58th meeting of the North Eastern Council in Guwahati.

“To be honest, I actually didn’t see the Ashok Chakra designed on the cake. I have already expressed my regret and clarified it (cutting the cake and eating it) was unintentional,” he said.