New Delhi: The Delhi Police has informed a Special MP/MLA Court that no “cognisable offence” has been committed by Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma when it came to speeches they made on the campaign trail before the Delhi assembly election.
While the former, a Union minister, encouraged those at a BJP rally in Rithala to say “desh ke gaddaron ko goli maro saalon ko” (‘shoot the traitors’), the latter, the West Delhi Lok Sabha MP, called the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, “rapists and murderers.”
The Election Commission had banned both from campaigning for a limited period. In case of Thakur, it had observed that his words could disturb “communal harmony.”
According to reports by Bar and Bench and LiveLaw, Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has told the Court of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja, that the original complaint by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders Brinda Karat and K.M. Tiwari “made a presumption” that the speeches incited violence.
Karat and Tiwari had sought recourse from the court under Section 156(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, reported Bar and Bench.
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According to LiveLaw, they had sought a direction to the Parliament Street Police Station to register an FIR against Thakur and Verma for the commission of offences under sections 153A, 153B, 295A, 298, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. All of these sections deal with the generation of hatred based on divisive lines.
However, Sub-Inspector Dheeraj has reportedly refuted the claim in the Action Taken Report that the BJP leaders’ speeches were incendiary and led to the violence in areas near Jamia Millia Islamia university.
Notably, a minor rightwing activist opened fire in the region just days after Thakur’s speech, injuring a student.
“…incidents of violence…are independent act which did not have any connection to the speeches mentioned in the complaint,” the Report is quoted as having said, by Bar and Bench.
The court will pass its order on whether police is to lodge FIRs against the two leaders on March 2.
The report’s findings have been made public at a time when 20 people have died in the national capital amidst riots in which particular communities have been targeted. As per latest reports, the number of gunshot victims is more than 70.
Thakur’s and Verma’s speeches are part of the petition being heard by a division bench of the Delhi high court comprising Justices Muralidhar and Talwant Singh, seeking FIRs against hate speech mongers including BJP’s Kapil Mishra.