Delhi High Court will on Monday pronounce its verdict on a plea by CPM leaders Brinda Karat and K.M. Tiwari challenging a trial court’s refusal to direct registration of FIRs against Union minister Anurag Thakur and his BJP colleague and MP Pravesh Verma for their alleged hate speeches during the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh.

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh had reserved the order on March 25 on the petition that claimed that an FIR should be lodged against Thakur and Verma as a cognisable offence was made out against them and that the petitioners were only asking the police to investigate the matter.

The petitioners had alleged in their complaint before the trial court that “Thakur and Verma had sought to incite people as a result of which three incidents of firing took place at two different protest sites in Delhi”.

They had mentioned that at a rally in the capital’s Rithala area, Thakur had on January 27, 2020, egged on the crowd to raise an incendiary slogan — “shoot the traitors” — after lashing out at those protesting against the amended Citizenship Act (CAA).

They had further claimed that Verma had on January 28, 2020, made incendiary comments against the anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh.

The trial court had on August 26, 2021, dismissed the complaint on the ground that it was not sustainable as the requisite sanction from the competent authority, the central government, had not been obtained.