A lawyer appearing for Ronny Sen, who was allegedly targeted by a dagger-wielding acquaintance for his stand against the citizenship act, spoke at a Salt Lake court for one’s right to speak freely on any matter.

Another lawyer representing Sen submitted that his client had not said anything to the accused, Avijit Dasgupta, that could have prompted such a reaction.

The additional chief judicial magistrate’s court rejected Dasgupta’s bail plea and remanded him in judicial custody till January 15.

Dasgupta, who was arrested from his house at Vidyasagar Niketan in Salt Lake, had allegedly lunged at Sen with a dagger when the two met in front of the housing estate on Monday night. Sen could avert the thrust and run away.

Before that, Dasgupta had allegedly called the film-maker-photographer an anti-national repeatedly because of his Facebook posts against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens.

“He (Sen) has been vocal against CAA and NRC on social media and has also joined protest rallies. He had not said anything to (Avijit) Dasgupta directly but the latter got instigated and attacked him with a dagger,” Mukherjee submitted in the court.

“He has been speaking his mind about the current state of affairs on his Facebook wall. It is important that a person expresses freely whatever he feels,” Biswas submitted.

Dasgupta has been booked under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

Moving the bail plea, defence lawyer Monotosh Naskar said: “The complainant has blown a small misunderstanding out of proportion. The police have not recovered the dagger that was apparently used to attack Sen and there are no injuries on his body.”

Sen came to know Dasgupta when he stayed at Labony Estate, close to Vidyasagar Niketan.