The Uttarakhand Police on Tuesday summoned two people named in the first information report filed in connection with the provocative speeches against Muslims at a religious conclave in Haridwar city for questioning, the Hindustan Times reported.
Last week, multiple videos emerged of Hindutva group members and seers calling for violence against Muslims during a “dharam sansad”, or a religious parliament, held in Haridwar between December 17 and December 19. The speakers at the event had asked Hindus to buy weapons for genocide against Muslims.
After their comments sparked outrage, the police on December 23 filed a FIR against former Shia Waqf board chief Jitendra Narayan Tyagi. He had changed his name from Wasim Rizvi after converting to Hinduism on December 6.
Two days later, the police added the names of Sadhvi Annapurna, also known as Pooja Shakun Pandey, and priest Dharamdas Maharaj, in the FIR.
Tyagi and Annapurna were served a notice under Section 41(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, directing them to report to the Haridwar Kotwali police station by January 4 to record their statements, according to the Hindustan Times.
Rakendra Kathait, station house officer at the police station, said, “Both of them received the notices.”
Meanwhile, Tyagi filed a complaint alleging “threat to life from Muslim fundamentalists” ever since he converted to Hinduism. “The police are verifying the complaint before taking further action,” Kathait said.
The officer added that the police could not issue a notice to Maharaj as he was not present in his home in Haridwar . “We are trying to locate him,” Kathait said.
At the event in Haridwar, Sadhvi Annapurna repeated the Hindutva leaders call for genocide: “If you want to finish off their population then we are ready to kill them,” she can be heard saying in a video. “Even if 100 of us are ready to kill 20 lakh of them, then we will be victorious.”
Later, she even told NDTV that the Constitution was wrong. “Indians should pray to Nathuram Godse,” she added.
The other accused, Dharamdas Maharaj, called for the assassination of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “following in the footsteps of Nathuram Godse [Gandhi’s assassin]”. He made the comments while referring to Singh’s 2006 statement in Parliament, saying that minorities must have the first claim on resources of the country.
No arrests have been made in the case so far even as Opposition leaders, Supreme Court lawyers, Muslim organisations and eminent citizens questioned the government inaction.
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