The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Centre and the Tripura government on a plea seeking the setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the communal violence in the state.

A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna issued notices on a petition filed by advocate Ehtesham Hashmi through advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryly Dsouza that claimed the state police were hand in glove with the perpetrators of hate crimes.

The petitioner alleged that a series of hate crimes took place in Tripura between October 13 and October 27 that were perpetrated by organised mobs and included “damage to mosques, burning of business establishments owned by Muslims, organising rallies shouting Islamophobic & genocidal hate slogans and delivering hate speeches targeting Muslims”.

The plea submitted that despite the gravity and magnitude of the incidents, no concrete steps were taken by the state police against the miscreants and rioters.

No one has been arrested for desecrating mosques, vandalising shops and delivering hate speeches targeting the Muslim community, the petition added.

According to the petitioner, the state was guilty of disregarding the apex court’s earlier directions in Tehseen Poonawalla vs Union of India (2018) that strict action should be taken against the perpetrators and any dereliction of duty would result in disciplinary proceedings against the erring police personnel concerned.

“…instead of taking adequate steps to prevent the hate crimes that took place over a period of ten days or providing adequate relief to the victims thereof, the respondents were hand in glove with the perpetrators of the aforementioned hate crimes,” the petitioner said.

The petitioner has listed the following actions of Tripura police to justify the allegations:

⚫ The police and state authorities instead of attempting to stop the violence kept on claiming that there was no communal tension anywhere in Tripura and further denied reports of any mosque being set ablaze. However, eventually police protection was extended to several mosques; orders were issued under Section 144 of the IPC; and compensation was also announced for the victims of the violence.

⚫ The West Agartala police station has sent a notice under Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code to two of the advocates that had accompanied the petitioner herein to conduct a fact-finding exercise and document the incidents of violence, imputing that it was their social media posts, statements and report that were responsible for “promoting enmity between religious groups as well as provoking people of different religious communities to commit breach of peace”. The absurdity of the police accusation and the malice underlying the police case becomes further evident by the fact that the fact-finding team of the Delhi advocates visited Tripura on October 29 and 30 after the outbreak of communal violence, which occurred between October 12 and October 26.

⚫ The police also invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against 102 people, including journalists, for reporting and writing on the communal violence.

⚫ The police failed to lodge FIRs on complaints made by several victims belonging to the Muslim community. One such complaint was made after the mosque at CRPF campus in Panisagar was burnt. However, no FIR has been lodged till date. On the other hand, police authorities verbally abused the complainant when he requested that an FIR be lodged on his complaint. Two other complaints dated October 29 made by shop owners had not been taken cognizance of by the police.

⚫ Not a single arrest has been made by the police of the rioters who were responsible for the vandalism and violence.

It is pertinent to note that the petitioner in the capacity of an advocate had personally visited the places where the aforementioned hate crimes were committed to publish a fact-finding report. The said report was published on November 2 by the petitioner and three other lawyers. The following findings were published in the report:

a) 12 mosques were damaged
b) 9 shops owned by Muslim businessmen were damaged
c) 3 houses owned by Muslims were vandalised.

“The above findings were arrived at by the petitioner after meeting with families and persons who were at the receiving end of the vandalism. The present facts disclose a shocking state of affairs where Muslims are openly targeted by rioters and no protection has been extended to them by the respondents and no arrests of said rioters has been made by the police authorities. The conduct of the police is manifestly arbitrary and mala fide and it affects the victim’s right to justice. Their conduct is also violative of Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 21 (life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India,” the petition said.