A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district has rejected the closure report filed by the police in a case against Rashtriya Janata Dal Spokesperson Priyanka Bharti for allegedly tearing pages of the Manusmriti during a television show in December, Live Law reported on Monday.
The Manusmriti is a Hindu text authored by an ascetic named Manu. It has been widely criticised for its gender and caste-based codes.
The debate had been organised by news channels India TV and TV9 Bharatvarsh in December.
In the closure report, the investigating officer said that the incident had taken place in Delhi, or some other place. Therefore, no crime had been committed within Aligarh’s jurisdiction, the officer argued.
Bharat Tiwari, the organisation secretary of the Rashtriya Savarn Parishad, had filed a complaint in December alleging that Bharti had insulted Manusmriti in a premeditated manner, by tearing it on live television. The act had hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community, he alleged.
Tiwari also accused Bharti of spreading false information about the scripture with the intention of inciting unrest in the country.
Based on the complaint, the Aligarh Police had registered a first information report against Bharti under a section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.
The order was passed on September 6 by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Rashi Tomar on a protest petition filed by Tiwari, Live Law reported.
In his protest plea, Tiwari claimed that the closure report was filed without proper investigation and the police officer had “not applied his legal mind”, The Hindu reported.
Tiwari also alleged that the officer had acted under Bharti’s influence.
The Aligarh court directed the station house officer of Rorawar police station to conduct further investigation in the matter and submit a fresh report, Live Law reported.
In February, the Allahabad High Court had refused to quash the FIR against Bharti.
In her petition, Bharti, who is also a PhD student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, had said that there was no intention or deliberate attempt on her part to insult any religious sentiments.
The court had declined her plea, observing that tearing a “holy book of a particular religion in a live TV debate...was nothing but prima facie, reflection of a malicious and deliberate intention of the petitioner”.
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