'Ae khoon ke pyase baat suno...': Gujarat HC refuses to quash FIR against Cong MP Pratapgarhi for viral video with controversial poem

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Friday refused to quash FIR against Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi facing charges of promoting communal disharmony by posting on his social media handle a video clip with a poem "ae khoon ke pyase baat suno..." running in the background.

"Looking to the tenor of the poem, it certainly indicates something about the throne. The responses received to the said post by other persons also indicate that the message was posted in a manner which certainly creates disturbance in social harmony...," Justice Sandeep N Bhatt has noted in his order.

It stated that citizens of this country should "behave" in a way which doesn't disturb communal and social harmony

"...the petitioner, who is a Member of Parliament, is expected to behave in some more restricted manner as he is expected to know more about the repercussions of such a post," the order stated.

On January 3, the Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pratapgarhi was booked by Jamnagar police for promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, statements prejudicial to national integration, insulting religious group or their beliefs, abetting the commission of an offense by the public or by a group of more than ten people, among other charges.

Local Congress leader Altaf G Khafi and an NGO identified as Sanjari Education and Charitable Trust also figure as accused.

The FIR alleges that the national chairman of Congress' minority cell, Pratapgarhi, was booked after he posted the 46-second video clip of a mass marriage he had attended in Jamnagar on December 29 on X handle. The clip showed him being showered with flowers as he walked waving his hands in the crowd.

Jamnagar resident Kishan Nanda approached the police and filed an FIR alleging that Pratapgarhi used a song which was "provocative, detrimental to national integrity and hurt religious sentiments.

Subsequently, Pratapgarhi through advocate I H Syed moved the high court for quashing the FIR, arguing that the poem, based on which the FIR was filed, "is a poem spreading a message of love."

Following this submission, the court asked the petitioner to file an affidavit disclosing the source of the poem or whether he himself being a 'Shayar' (poet) wrote it.

The Congress leader filed an affidavit stating that he was not the author of the poem and was unable to "conclusively ascertain" who actually wrote it. He said that based on "available information, including sources reviewed through ChatGPT and public domain opinions, the poem is attributed to either Faiz Ahmed Faiz or Habib Jalib."

He maintained in the affidavit that "reading of the song poem, it is a message of love and non-violence." Syed argued in the court that the plain reading of the FIR made it clear that no offence was made out.

The public prosecutor defended the FIR stating that "the words of the poem clearly indicate the rage to be raised against the throne of the state" and therefore, "prima facie a case is made out."

The government also submitted that petitioner has not been cooperating with the investigation as he didn't turn up despite three notices.