Court said the accused “is repeatedly making comments to incite communal passions and spoiling religious harmony”
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – A Haridwar court, on Wednesday, rejected the bail plea of the Hindutva hate monger and notorious offender, Yati Narsinghanand, ignoring his lawyer’s argument that the offences brought against him are bailable.
Narsinghanand is an accused in a case of hate speech delivered at a ‘dharam sansad’ (religious gathering) held in Haridwar from December 17 to 19.
Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Mukesh Chandra Arya cited the antecedents of Yati Narsinghanand while rejecting his bail plea. He said the accused “is repeatedly making comments to incite communal passions and spoiling religious harmony/atmosphere through social media and there is a strong possibility of serious crimes being committed in the area”.
Earlier, the CJM declined to entertain bail plea of Jitendra Narayan Tyagi aka Waseem Rizvi, another accused in the case and a close associate of the former.
Narsinghanand was first arrested for his remarks against women on January 15. Later, the police also arrested him in the hate speech case.
He has been booked under sections 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feeling), 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (insult intended to provoke breach of peace), and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.) of the Indian Penal Code.
Meanwhile, Adheer Kaushik, the head of Akhand Parashuram Akhada, who is handling the case for Narsinghanand, decided to move the high court for Narsinghanand’s release.
The aforementioned hate assembly at Haridwar came into light after video clips showing speakers giving genocide calls against Muslims surfaced on the internet. The videos sparked nationwide outrage and resentment the echoes of which could be heard far and wide.
Sensing the risk of a bloodbath in the country, global human rights groups called upon the Indian government to take immediate steps to rein in the offenders. This prompted the police to file a criminal case naming Narsinghanand and Tyagi, Dharamdas, Sadhvi Annapurna, and Sindhu Sagar.
