A Delhi court has told the police to submit an action taken report on a plea seeking a first information report against Sudarshan TV Editor-in-Chief Suresh Chavhanke for allegedly giving hate speeches, The Indian Express reported.
The court directed the Delhi Police to file the report by March 7.
Social worker Vikas Kangra filed the petition at Delhi’s Patiala House court through his lawyer Mehmood Pracha. He alleged that Chavhanke, through his speech, sought to create enmity against all communities of India except upper caste Hindus.
Kangra referred to an event in Delhi organised on December 19 by Hindutva organisation Hindu Yuva Vahini. “The accused can be heard administering an aggressive, hostile, and terrorising oath to the crowd gathered at the place of the incident,” the petition said.
The oath called on people to be prepared to die and kill if needed in order to create a Hindu nation, and to be ready for any sacrifice.
Kangra’s petition stated that Chavhanke used these words with a “clear cut motive of establishing a Hindu Rashtra in place of the Republic of India” and that such speeches “strike terror in the minds of the minority communities and other oppressed class communities of India”.
This is the second time in recent months that a court in Delhi has asked the police to state whether any action has been taken against the Sudarshan TV editor for alleged hate speech.
A judge at the Rohini court had also asked the Delhi Police to respond to a complaint filed by a man named Zafir Hussain and state whether a cognisable offence is made out, Live Law reported on February 1.
The petitioner had objected to a show aired on May 15 titled “Aao Israel ka saath dein, kal ki ladai ka saathi hai Israel [come, let us support Israel, it is our supporter for tomorrow’s battle.]”
Hussain alleged that Chavhanke “under the garb of Palestine-Israel conflicts, tried to provoke and instigate Muslims by showing a edited video and aired graphical depiction of bombing Masjid an Nabwi and showing missiles targeting the holy place of Islam Le. Green Dome at Madina, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia built above the tomb of Islamic Prophet Muhammad...”
The Rohini court will hear the matter next on April 2.
Chavhanke has been accused of making inflammatory speeches on several other occasions as well.
On September 16, 2020, the Supreme Court had restrained Sudarshan News from airing future episodes of its Bindas Bol show. The court held that the four episodes telecast by the channel from September 11 to 14 that year had indulged in the vilification of Muslims and called its content “rabid” and “insidious”.
The channel had accused Muslims of “infiltrating” the civil services by using terror funding from abroad, terming it “UPSC Jihad”.
Chavhanke had claimed before the Supreme Court that the show was a piece of investigative journalism and said that Sudarshan News had no problem with any individual from any community joining the civil services on merit.
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