Hate speech: SC seeks Delhi police response on plea seeking FIR against BJP leaders

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Delhi police on a plea by CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat against Delhi High Court order on her plea to lodge an FIR against Union Minister Anurag Thakur and BJP MP Pravesh Verma against their alleged hate speech in 2020 during anti Citizenship Amendment Act.

Both the leaders had allegedly been part of group that raised slogan "desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaron saalon ko".

A bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna noted that prima facie the stand of the magistrate that sanction was required for registration of the FIR, against the BJP leaders, was not correct saying that reasoning of courts below that sanction under Section 196 of the CrPC was required may not be correct.

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The bench issued notice to Delhi police and sought its response within three weeks.

The Delhi High Court, in June last year, had dismissed the plea filed by CPI(M) leaders Brinda Karat and K M Tiwari against Thakur and Verma for their alleged hate speeches. The high court had declined to interfere with the trial court’s order.

Before the trial court, the petitioners had contended that BJP leaders had sought to incite people as a result of which three incidents of firing took place at two different protest sites in Delhi.

Citing a rally in Delhi in January 2020, the petitioner alleged that Thakur, after criticizing the anti-CAA protestors of Shaheen Bagh, incited the crowd to raise an incendiary slogan. Also, Verma made an inflammatory speech against the Shaheen Bagh protesters in the same month, claimed the petitioners.

In August 2021, the trial court dismissed petitioners’ complaint.