A court in Delhi has directed the police to file a report on the action taken against Rajput Karni Sena chief Kunwar Suraj Pal Amu and priest Narsinghanand Saraswati for allegedly making communally provocative comments, Live Law reported on Tuesday.
The court’s order came after the police in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar had allegedly refused to file a first information report against Amu and Saraswati on August 4, according to The Wire. A law teacher named Faisal Ahmed Khan had approached the police with complaints against the two.
In his complaint against Amu, Khan cited the remarks he made at two mahapanchayats in Haryana in May and July, according to Live Law.
In May, Amu had allegedly spoken in favour of those accused of lynching a Muslim man in Haryana’s Indri village. The Haryana Police had said in June that they were verifying a video of Amu’s speech.
Weeks later in Pataudi, Amu allegedly “urged the crowd to destroy mosques and stop every attempt that is made at building mosques”, The Wire reported, quoting the complaint against him.
The complainant alleged that Amu’s comments intended to hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community and disturb peace.
He demanded that a first information report be filed against Amu under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
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Khan, in his complaint against Saraswati, the head priest of Dasna Devi temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district, cited the comments that he made while speaking to the press in July, according to Live Law.
Saraswati had reportedly said in Aligarh that students from certain institutions could not “bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India or uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India”.
Complainant Khan alleged that Saraswati “intentionally insulted prominent central universities like Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia”. He added that the priest was clearly targeting the Muslim community.
Khan told The Wire that he waited for three days after submitting his complaints to the police and then approached a district court on August 7.
On August 11, the court ordered the police to file an action taken report in the matter. It has to be submitted by September 27, according to Live Law.
Metropolitan Magistrate Rajat Goyal also asked the police to state “whether any investigation or inquiry has been conducted in this regard and if yes, then what is the status of the investigation/ inquiry?”
Meanwhile, Station House Officer Satish Kumar told The Wire that the matter was not under the Jamia Nagar police station’s jurisdiction.
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