Uttarakhand police have sent notices of appearance to Jitendra Narayan Tyagi and Sadhvi Annapurna, who are accused of delivering hate speeches against Muslims at a Dharma Sansad (religious parliament) in Haridwar recently.
Jitendra Narayan Tyagi was earlier known as Waseem Rizvi. He had been the president of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board, but changed his name after converting to Hinduism.
Haridwar Kotwali police station house officer (SHO) Rakender Singh Kathait said on Wednesday: “We have sent notices of appearance to Rizvi and Sadhvi Annapurna so far. A notice may also be sent to Dharamdas, who is the third person named in the FIR.”
Dharamdas Maharaj, a sadhu from Bihar who spoke at the Haridwar event, was seen in a video saying at the conclave: “When I read that our (then) PM said Muslims had first right over national resources, I thought that if I were an MP and had a revolver, I would have become Nathuram Godse and pumped six bullets into the chest of Manmohan Singh.”
Members of a core committee formed by the organisers of the Dharma Sansad on Tuesday submitted an application to the police seeking a counter-FIR against an unnamed “maulana”, accusing him of hatching a conspiracy against them.
Asked whether a counter-FIR would be lodged, SHO Kathait said everything depended on how the investigation progressed. “We are looking into the application submitted on behalf of the core committee formed by the organisers of the event and an FIR will be lodged if necessary,” he said.
Kathait added: “We cannot jump to conclusions on the basis of mere allegations and penalise someone. The allegations will be probed and appropriate action taken.”
Pune case
Pune police have registered a case against Hindu religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj, Right-wing leader Milind Ekbote and four others for allegedly making inflammatory speeches during an event in the city and hurting religious sentiments, officials said on Wednesday.
The event, Shiv Pratap Din, to celebrate the killing of Mughal commander Afzal Khan by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was organised by Ekbote’s Samast Hindu Aghadi on December 19. According to the police, the event was attended by Kalicharan, Ekbote and Captain Digendra Kumar (retired), among others.
The case has been registered under IPC Sections 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religious feelings of any class), 298 (deliberate intention of wounding religious feeling of any person) and 505 (2) (false statement, rumour made in place of worship, etc, with intent to create enmity, hatred or ill-will), the officials said.
Kalicharan is also facing FIRs in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh for allegedly using derogatory words against Mahatma Gandhi during an even in Raipur recently.
