The Gurugram Police on Tuesday filed a first information report against former Rajya Sabha MP Mohammad Adeeb based on a complaint by a local Hindutva supremacist who has been at the forefront of protests against offering namaz in public places in the city.
In December, Adeeb had moved the Supreme Court seeking contempt proceedings against Haryana chief secretary and director general of police for allegedly not taking action against Hindutva groups who have repeatedly blocked Muslims from gathering for Friday prayers in Gurugram.
Dinesh Bharti, the founder of an outfit called the Bharat Mata Vahini, filed a complaint against Adeeb, Mufti Mohammad Saleem Qasmi, the president of Jamiat Ulema e Hind Gurgaon, and a man identified as Abdul Haseeb Qasmi.
All three of them are members of Gurgaon Muslim Council, which has been negotiating with the administration for allotment of sites for Friday prayers and land for building mosques.
In his complaint, Bharti claimed he had read in a Hindi newspaper on January 2 that these people were planning to build a mosque and locals told him that were trying to encroach upon land in two places – Sector 40 and Kanhai village – to build graveyards.
Bharti, who has been arrested thrice in the past for disrupting namaz at several sites, also alleged that three people received funding from abroad to incite riots. He also claimed that he was not targeting any religion.
“Land grabbing and encroachment and misuse of public land are our key issues,” he claimed. “They [accused] are misleading people and trying to disrupt communal harmony.”
Meanwhile, Adeeb told The Indian Express that the police filing an FIR against him without verifying facts was “quite unfortunate” and bizarre.
“This is a vindictive and biased approach from the administration since I had filed a petition in Supreme Court questioning their failure to take action against people who have been disrupting Friday prayers in Gurgaon,” he added.
He also pointed out that the police have not filed even a single case against Hindutva supremacists who disrupt offering of Friday prayers in the open despite repeated complaints. “Why the administration and police is being biased?” he asked, according to the Hindustan Times.
Kuldeep Singh, station house officer of Gurugram’s Sector 40 police station, told PTI that facts related to the complaint are being verified.
Namaz disruptions
Almost every Friday over the last few months, Hindutva supremacists have disrupted offering of namaz in public places.
On December 17, Hindutva supremacists had disrupted namaz at a park in the Udyog Vihar are of the city. Videos shared on social media showed them forcing people to chant “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. On that day, Muslims had stayed away from Sector 37 grounds, which is one of the designated sites for namaz in Gurugram.
This specific namaz site has seen several disruptions over the last one month. Hindutva supremacists had protested on November 20 against Muslims offering prayers at Sector 37 ground, claiming that they wanted to play cricket there.
They had also organised a havan ceremony on November 26 at the site to mark the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
On November 5, members of the Hindutva groups had organised a in Sector 12A, after which they spread cow dung across the ground. At the same site, on November 7, those who gathered to prevent the prayers had claimed that a volleyball court will be set up there.
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