‘She put country on fire’: SC dismisses Nupur plea
NEW DELHI: Suspended Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Nupur Sharma’s controversial comments on Prophet Mohammed during a TV debate in May were “single-handedly responsible for putting the entire nation on fire” and even led to the Udaipur tailor’s killing earlier this week, the Supreme Court said on Friday, trashing her request to consider transferring all the first information reports (FIRS) against her to Delhi.
“This lady is single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country… The outcome of her statement is what happened in Udaipur... the unfortunate killing in Udaipur. Her remarks were extremely disturbing,” observed a bench of justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala, adding that Sharma must apologise to the whole nation for her “loose tongue” that ignited strong emotions just to fan an agenda.
The bench remarked that her plea seeking to either quash or stay the proceedings in FIRS against her shows her “obstinate and arrogant character”, and that Sharma does not want to appear before a magistrate because she thinks “magistrates of the country are too small for her”.
To be sure, the court has previously clubbed and transferred FIRS in multiple cases.
In her petition, Sharma said that nine FIRS were registered against her under various charges of the Indian Penal Code across several states, including Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal, in a coordinated attempt to silence her and impinge her right to free speech and liberty.
The court was emphatic that merely being a spokesperson of a national party does not give her licence to say anything. “So what if she is the spokesperson of a party? That does not give her the license to say anything disturbing. The power has gone to her head. These kinds of people are not religious at all since religious people respect every religion,” it said.
The bench added: “She thinks she has the back-up of power and makes any statement without respect to the law of the land?” Questioning the Delhi Police’s role in the entire matter, the bench pointed out that another person she complained of was arrested immediately but she is still free. “What has the Delhi Police done? Don’t make us open our mouths? When you lodge a complaint, that person is immediately arrested. But nobody dares to touch you. It shows your clout... you must have received a red-carpet welcome when you joined the investigation before the Delhi Police,” it remarked.
Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing Sharma, replied that the “other person” was not arrested on Sharma’s complaint.