Caravan News
LUCKNOW — Pervez Parwaz, 62-year-old Gorakhpur resident who had filed a complaint in 2007 against then MP Yogi Adityanath over a hate speech and has since been pursuing the case in the courts, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly raping a woman.
He was arrested just day before a hearing in the Allahabad High Court on his plea seeking stay on his arrest. He has been sent to jail. However, the HC has stayed the arrest of another accused in the alleged rape case.
Lawyer by profession, Parwaz had accused Yogi of giving a hateful and provocative speech in Gorakhpur on 27th January 2007 which, he alleged, had led to communal clashes between two communities during a Muharram procession.
While Superintendent of Police (City) Vinay Singh, as per a report in NDTV, said the woman was allegedly raped by Parvaz and another man Mahmood alias Jumman, said to be an ‘occultist’ she had come seeking a cure for some illness, human rights group Rihai Manch has termed his arrest as ‘politically motivated’.
“The police had submitted their final report in the case in the court and today (26th September) there was hearing in the High Court on arrest stay but the police arrested him in the night itself,” said Manch in a statement on Wednesday.
Advocate Syed Farman Ahmed Naqvi said the HC has stayed the arrest of another accused (Mahmood) in the alleged rape case.
Rajiv Yadav, General Secretary, Rihai Manch said: “The 2007 hate speech case of Yogi Adityanath in the Gorakhpur communal violence is pending in the Supreme Court. There was huge pressure on petitioner Pervez Parwaz to withdraw the case but he stood to his ground. 65-year-old Pervez Parwaz and another person were slapped with an alleged gang-rape case in June 2018. The police investigated the case and found it fake and submitted their final report.”
Questioning the motive of the local police, Rihai Manch leader asked: “When the police had filed final report in the case, why did the Gorakhpur police filed a case against him on the basis of a preliminary report of a new investigation in the same case and without rejecting the earlier final report?”
Rihai Manch leader alleged: “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself becomes a judge and decides not to proceed with the case against him and now politically-motivated action is being taken against Pervez who took him to the court.”
