Haridwar Dharma Sansad case: SC directs hate speech accused to surrender by Sept 2

PTI, Aug 29, 2022, 6:07 PM IST

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, an accused in the Haridwar Dharma Sansad case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made against Muslims, to surrender by September 2. Tyagi, formerly known as Wasim Rizvi, is currently out on medical bail.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B V Nagarathna refused to extend the bail granted earlier on medical grounds and said it will consider the regular bail plea filed by Tyagi on September 9. “There is no reason to give him relief. So many cases are pending against him. Ask him to surrender,” the bench told Tyagi’s lawyer.

The apex court on May 17 granted three months of interim bail to Tyagi on medical grounds and directed him to give an undertaking that he would not indulge in hate speech and not give any statement on electronic or digital or social media. Tyagi had approached the top court after the Uttarakhand High Court dismissed his bail plea in March this year. The case against him and others had been lodged on the complaint of Nadeem Ali, a resident of Jwalapur Haridwar at Haridwar Kotwali on January 2 this year.

He had alleged in his complaint that Dharma Sansad or religious Parliament was organised in Haridwar by Hindu sages from December 17 to 19 last year and in the garb of this event, the participants were instigated to wage a war against Muslims. Objectionable words were allegedly used against the Holy Quran and Prophet Mohammad, Ali had said in his complaint, adding these provocative statements had later gone viral on social media. These videos were circulated by Tyagi, Yati Narsinghanand, and others, he had alleged.

The FIR also alleged that an attempt was made by Prabodhanand Giri to spread violence against the people living in Haridwar’s mosques. On Ali’s complaint, Narsindhanand Giri, Sagar Sindhu Maharaj, Dharamdas Maharaj, Parmanand Maharaj, Sadhvi Annapurna, Swami Anand Swaroop, Ashwani Upadhyay, Suresh Chavan along with Swami Prabodhanand Giri, Jitendra Narayan were booked under various sections of the IPC for allegedly delivering hate speeches in the name of religion at the conclave.