The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, one of the accused men in the Haridwar hate speech, on medical grounds for three months, Live Law reported.
A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath ordered him to not give hate speech or make any statement to the media or social media.
The court was hearing a bail petition filed by former Shia Waqf Board chief, who had converted to Hinduism and changed his name from Wasim Rizvi.
The case pertains to a “dharam sansad”, or religious parliament, held in Haridwar between December 17 and December 19, during which Hindutva supremacists had called upon Hindus to buy weapons to commit genocide against Muslims.
At the event, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, the head priest of Ghaziabad’s Dasna Devi temple, had urged Hindus to pick up weapons as the “economic boycott” of Muslims will not work. He was arrested and was later granted bail in this case on February 7.
Tyagi had approached the Supreme Court after his bail plea was rejected in March by the Uttarakhand High Court.
On Tuesday, the counsel representing the Uttarakhand government demanded maximum punishment of three years for Tyagi and said that bail should only be granted if he “mends his ways”, reported Live Law.
On May 12, the Supreme Court had said that the hate speech was spoiling the atmosphere of the country. It also said that speakers at such events should “sensitise themselves”.
“They are spoiling the whole atmosphere,” the court had remarked orally. “Stay together peacefully, enjoy the life.”
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Tyagi, had said that his client had been in custody for almost six months and is suffering from ailments. He pointed out that the maximum sentence was three years in the case filed against Tyagi.
Police action in case
Two first information reports have been filed in the case so far.
The first FIR was filed on December 23 and had named just Tyagi.
On December 26, the Uttarakhand Police added the names of Annapurna, also known as Pooja Shakun Pandey, and priest Dharamdas Maharaj to the FIR. Annapurna is the general secretary of the Hindutva organisation Hindu Mahasabha. On January 1, the names of Saraswati and seer Sagar Sindhu Maharaj were added to the FIR.
On January 2, a second first information report was filed against 10 persons, including Giri and Maharaj. The other accused persons named in the FIR are event organisers Dharamdas, Parmananda, Annapurna, Anand Swaroop, Ashwini Upadhyay, Suresh Chahwan and Prabodhanand Giri and Tyagi.
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