Supreme Court to hear Haridwar hate speech case on Wednesday
At a religious conclave held between December 17 and 19, Hindutva supremacists had called upon Hindus to buy weapons to commit genocide against Muslims.
The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the case related to alleged hate speech made at a religious conclave held in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar city last month, reported ANI. A bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana will hear the matter.
On Monday, the court had agreed to hear Advocate Kapil Sibal’s petition seeking criminal action on the matter.
At an event called “dharam sansad”, or religious parliament, held in Haridwar between December 17 and December 19, Hindutva supremacists had called upon Hindus to buy weapons to commit genocide against Muslims.
Two first information reports have been filed in the case so far.
The first FIR was filed on December 23 and had named just former Shia Waqf Board chief Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, who recently converted to Hinduism and changed his name from Wasim Rizvi.
On December 26, the Uttarakhand Police added to the FIR, the names of Annapurna, also known as Pooja Shakun Pandey, and Dharamdas. Annapurna is the general secretary of Hindutva organisation Hindu Mahasabha. On January 1, the names of Yati Narsinghanand Giri and Sagar Sindhu were added in the FIR.
Giri, also known as Yati Nargsinghanand Saraswati, has made several extremist comments in the past as well. At the Haridwar event, he had called upon Hindus to pick up weapons, asserting that “economic boycott” of Muslims will not work.
On January 2, a second first information report was filed against 10 persons, including Giri and Sindhu. The other accused persons named in the FIR are event organisers Dharamdas, Parmananda, Annapurna, Anand Swaroop, Ashwini Upadhyay, Suresh Chahwan and Prabodhanand Giri and Tyagi.
After Sibal moved the petition to the Supreme Court on Monday, Ramana had asked him if an inquiry had been conducted into the matter. To this, Sibal had said that first information reports have been filed but no arrest has been made yet.
“Without the intervention of your lordships no action will be taken,” Sibal had said.
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