Trinamul spokesperson Saket Gokhale and political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla have slammed Karnataka police for summoning them over their email complaints against BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur for her hate speech in which she urged Hindus to keep their kitchen knives ready to retaliate against those who engage in “love jihad”.

In his written response to the police summons to appear before an inspector in Shimoga on Wednesday, Gokhale warned that he would move the Supreme Court naming the officer and the district superintendent of police as respondents for failing to register an FIR citing frivolous reasons.

The police have said they are unable to lodge an FIR against Pragya for want of a written complaint.

While Poonawalla lodged his complaint on Monday, Gokhale filed his plaint on Tuesday. But the inspector of Kote police station in Shimoga issued notices asking them to appear before him at 11am on Wednesday for verification.

The officer cited Section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Lalitha Kumari guidelines of the Supreme Court to check the veracity of the information received.

Gokhale accused the police of protecting Pragya. “Shocking: How @Shivamogga_SP & Karnataka Police are protecting BJP’s Pragya Thakur: Shivamogga Police issued a notice on my complaint for a hate speech FIR against BJP MP Pragya Thakur & have illegally said that FIR can be registered only if I’m physically present,” he tweeted on Wednesday.

In his written response to the inspector over the notice, Gokhale noted: “There is no condition or provision for an officer receiving information regarding a cognisable offence to verify the identity of the person making the complaint.”

Poonawalla has authorised district Congress president H.S. Sundaresh to appear before the inspector on his behalf since it was too short a notice for him to make the trip from Pune where he is based.