Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – Karkardooma court has stayed the order of the judicial magistrate directing to register an FIR against a police officer for assaulting and forcing Muslim youths to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ during 2020 communal violence.
On 18 January, judicial magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain had directed to register FIR against the Jyoti Nagar SHO (Station House Officer) Salender Tomar calling the assault on Muslim youth “hate crime”. However, on 1 February, addition session judge Sammer Bajpai stayed the order allegedly without giving any notice to the complainant.
Speaking to Clarion India, Mahmood Pracha, senior advocate who is representing the complainant Waseem in the case, said they were surprised by the stay as they were not even issued notice about it. He will now challenge the stay order in the court.
“We were not given any notice. We were taken by surprise. What can we do now? It’s court order. We will challenge the stay order in the court,” Pracha told Clarion India.
Pracha is a counsel of Mohammed Wasim, who was among the Muslim youths including Mohammed Faizan assaulted and forced to sing national anthem. A video of these youths being forced by the policemen to sing national anthem while they are seriously injured and wailing in pain had gone viral when the incident happened in February 2020. Later, one of the youths Faizan died after being tortured in the police custody.
Pracha came to know about the stay order related to the FIR on Monday evening when he was checking the case status.
Directing to register an FIR against Tomar, magistrate said the officer has indulged in a hate crime.
“Clearly, the SHO PS Jyoti Nagar, Mr. Tomar (complete name with post not provided) and other unknown police officials engaged themselves in hate crimes against the complainant/victim and they cannot be protected under the garb of sanction as alleged offences committed by them cannot be said to have been committed while acting or purporting to act in the discharge if their official duty,” reads the order.
The judgment also noted that the police merely deny the allegations but has failed to provide any substantive steps taken for conducting preliminary inquiry which is not even mandatory in each case as per the judgement passed by the Hon’ble Apex Court in Lalita Kumari vs Government of UP. “The ATR (Action Taken Report) is also silent on the aspect of CCTV footage pertaining to the date of alleged incident, which should have been inquired by the IO. Thus, inquiry pertaining to alleged acts/offences against the complainant has not been conducted properly,” it noted.
The court also observed that scathing remarks (made by the accused) which have the effect of affecting communal harmony are undemocratic and uncalled for from a citizen of this country where principles like Secularism hold the value of basic feature imbibed in the Constitution.
“Freedom to express oneself is indeed allowed to be enjoyed by the citizens to the fullest possible extent, yet with every right there is a corresponding duty attached. The principle behind Section 153A IPC is to preserve religious/communal harmony and it is the duty of every citizen that while he enjoys his right to express himself, he preserves religious harmony. This indeed is the positive aspect of Secularism,” it said.
Earlier in July last year, the Delhi High Court had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) led probe into the death of a 23-year-old Muslim man named Faizan calling it a hate crime.