Hate speech: FIR lodged against AIMIM leader Pathan

An FIR was filed on Friday night against All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader and former MLA Waris Pathan at Kalaburagi rural police station for his controversial statement.

The ex-MLA had said "15 karor musalman 100 pe bhari padega (15 crore Muslims are more than a match for the country's 100 crore Hindus) at a public meeting here on February 15.

Kalaburagi City Police Commissioner M N Nagaraj said "Pathan has been booked under Sections 117 (abetting the commission of an offence by the public or by more than 10 persons), 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot) and 153a (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) of Indian Penal Code (IPC)".

The FIR has been filed one week late by advocate Shwetha Omprakash Rathod.

"His remarks amount to creating hatred among the religions. She has lodged a complaint on Friday after she came to know about the provocative speech through social media," Swetha said in her complaint.

Nagaraj said a probe will be conducted into the speech and Pathan will be called for interrogation, if need be.

As soon as new channels aired his speech, Pathan took to twitter. He said, "I hereby wish to reiterate that I can never say anything intentionally or unintentionally that hurts the sentiments of any caste, community or gender."

"I am proud Indian and respect the plurality of this country. But yes, I am angry just like many other Indians, who believe in the Constitution of the country, the sheer neglect by the Govt in addressing the issues concerning CAA/NRC and NPR against which people have been protesting across the country in a democratic way," he said.