The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to urgently list the hearing of a plea by former Rajya Sabha MP Mohammad Adeeb seeking contempt action against Haryana director general of police and chief secretary for allegedly not taking action against Hindutva supremacists who have repeatedly blocked Muslims from gathering for Friday prayers in Gurugram, Live Law reported.
Senior Advocate Indira Jaising mentioned the plea before Chief Justice NV Ramana, who assured her that he will look into the matter and list it for hearing immediately.
“This is not only based on newspaper reports, we have ourselves filed complaints,” Jaising told the chief justice. “We are not asking for any enforcement of FIR [first information report]. This court has laid down preventive measures.”
In his petition, Adeeb has sought contempt action arguing that the authorities have failed to comply with the directions issued by the Supreme Court in 2018 to curb communal and violent sentiments that result in hate crimes and mob lynching.
“In the recent months, there has been a constant rise in incidents revolving around the said Friday prayers at the behest of certain identifiable hooligans, with no local support, who portray themselves falsely in the name of religion and seek to create an atmosphere of hatred and prejudice against one community across the city,” the plea said.
Adeeb, a former Independent MP and a Gurgaon resident, also submitted that several complaints addressed to the police in the case have gone unanswered. The petitioner claimed that as the police took no action, on December 3, the incidents escalated and larger Hindutva groups gathered at various sites of namaz, shouting slogans.
“While a considerable number of police forces were present, despite the same videos emerged clearly showing such persons as having no fear of law,” the petition said. “The police reportedly detained some persons from the mob, but the same were subsequently let off the same day.”
Namaz disruptions
Almost every Friday over the last few months, Hindutva supremacists have disrupted offering of namaz in public places.
On January 7, Muslims were able to offer prayers in public at 10 locations in Gurugram, the Hindustan Times reported. This was the second straight week when namaz had not been disrupted by Hindutva extremists.
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.
Since 2018, periodic protests by Hindutva groups have shrunk the number of open spaces where Muslims can pray in Gurugram. With every round of protest, the administration has urged Muslims to give up a few of the spaces where they used to pray.
Three years ago, local residents told Scroll.in, there were over 100 open spaces where Muslims had the district administration’s permission to pray. After a meeting held on November 3, that number has come down to 20.
The Hindutva groups have vowed to keep agitating until there are no more open spaces for Muslims to pray in.
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