Hate speeches: SC seeks Delhi police's reply on Brinda Karat's plea for FIR

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Delhi police to respond to the plea of CPIM leader Brinda Karat challenging the Delhi High Courts order dismissing a petition against the trial courts refusal to order registration of an FIR against Union Minister Anurag Thakur and his BJP MP Pravesh Verma for their alleged hate speeches over antiCAA protestsA bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna issued the notice to the city police and sought its response within three weeksDuring the hearing the bench observed prima facie the magistrates stand that sanction was required for lodging FIRs against the two BJP leaders was not correctOn June 13 last year the Delhi High Court had dismissed the petition filed by CPIM leaders Brinda Karat and KM Tiwari against the two BJP MPs for their alleged hate speechesThe high court had refused to interfere with the trial courts order saying under the law sanction is required to be obtained from the competent authority for registration of FIR in the present factsThe petitioners had claimed in their complaint before the trial court that Thakur and Verma had sought to incite people as a result of which three incidents of firing took place at two different protest sites in DelhiThe petitioners alleged at a rally in Rithala in the national capital on January 27 2020 Thakur egged on the crowd to raise an incendiary slogan shoot the traitors after lashing out at antiCAA protesters of Shaheen BaghAlso Read Violence in Khartoum Indian embassy in Sudan advises Indians to not venture outThey claimed Verma too made inflammatory speech against the Shaheen Bagh protesters on January 28 2020The trial court had on August 26 2021 dismissed the petitioners complaint on the ground that it was not sustainable as the requisite sanction from the central government which was the competent authority had not been obtainedIn their complaint Karat and Tiwari had sought FIRs against the two BJP leaders under various sections including 153A promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion race place of birth residence language etc 153B imputations assertions prejudicial to national integration and 295A deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs of the IPCThey had also sought action under other sections of the IPC including 298 uttering words etc with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person 504 intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace 505 statements conducing to public mischief and 506 punishment for criminal intimidationThe maximum punishment for the offences is a jail term of seven yearsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever