AIMIM leader takes note of Islamophobic article making wild claims of sexual assaults during the recent Haj pilgrimage
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — The president of the Delhi chapter of All India Majlis-e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Shoaib Jamai, has served a legal notice to the editor of pro-Hindutva website OpIndia for publishing an Islamophobic article making wild claims of sexual assaults during the recent Haj pilgrimage at Makkah in Saudi Arabia.
The website, often accused of spreading fake news and Islamophobia, published an article on 22 July claiming that women faced sexual assault during the Haj. The article also carried explicit details of the incidents. The article has drawn anger from members of the Muslim community who started a trend with hashtag demanding a ban on the controversial website.
On Thursday, Jamai through his counsel Supreme Court advocate Faiyaz Khalid, served a legal notice to the website editor Nupur J Sharma demanding the removal of the content within 7 days. The notice also demanded removal of social media posts put out on its platforms like X and Instagram.
“The content of these posts is said to be inflammatory and offensive, promoting hatred and the language used in the posts is believed to be deliberately provocative aimed at creating animosity and hostility between religious groups. The posts allegedly contain content that attacks a community on the basis of religion, promoting feelings of hatred and prejudice. The content of the posts is said to be capable of inciting violence against a particular religious community,” reads the notice.
The notice pointed out that the content is in violation of various Indian laws, including criminal laws punishable under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 67 of Publishing or Transmitting Obscene Material in Electronic Form Information Technology Act, 200.
The notice demanded immediate removal of all such inflammatory and hateful content from the OpIndia website and social media pages and asked it to refrain from publishing similar content in the future.
Failing to comply with the legal notice, the AIMIM leader threatened to initiate legal proceedings against the editor and the website.
Serving the legal notice to OpIndia, Jamai said: “A legal notice was served to the extremely communal news website seeking legal action against it. Some days ago, the website published an extremely objectionable and obscene article to hurt the religious sentiment of Muslims. This has dismayed Muslims from across the country filing complaint at various police stations.”
Meanwhile, a social media user Deepak Sharma has also come under fire for making similar posts on the X about the Haj. Complaints were filed against him at different places and the police questioned him. Andhra Pradesh police also reached his home to inquire about his posts fuelling rumours that Sharma would be arrested for his social media posts. Later, Sharma said that he was not arrested but only questioned.
Jamai asked Delhi Police to take note of the article and initiate legal action against it suo moto.
