A court in Uttarakhand has denied bail to Hindutva supremacist seer Yati Narsinghanand Giri, one of the accused persons in the Haridwar hate speech case, Live Law reported on Thursday.
Giri was initially booked under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) and 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman) of the Indian Penal Code. On January 17, the Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar said that Giri has also been booked in the hate speech case.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukesh Arya observed on Wednesday that the seer “is repeatedly making comments to incite communal passions and spoiling religious harmony/atmosphere through social media and there is a strong possibility of serious crimes being committed in the area”.
The judge said that the offence that Giri allegedly committed is of a serious nature. He observed that the accused seer is alleged to have made derogatory comments about Muslim women on social media.
Giri allegedly said that Muslim women have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, have captured the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and can act as the mistresses of anyone for the service of Islam.
In his bail application, the Hindu supremacist seer claimed that he had been falsely implicated in the case. He claimed that the first information report does not state which community his alleged statements were against, and whose sentiments were hurt by them, according to Live Law.
Giri and several other Hindutva supremacists had called for violence against Muslims at a religious conclave held in Haridwar between December 17 and December 19. He had called upon Hindus to pick up weapons, asserting that the “economic boycott” of Muslims will not work.
Former chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board Jitendra Tyagi was the first person to be arrested in the case on January 13. Tyagi has recently converted to Hinduism from Islam.
Two first information reports have been filed in the case so far. The first FIR was filed on December 23 and had just included Tyagi’s name. On January 1, the names of Yati Narsinghanand and another seer, Sagar Sindhuraj, were added to the FIR.
On January 2, the second FIR was filed against 10 persons, including Yati Narsinghanand and Sindhuraj.
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