Days later, cops yet to summon accused
DEHRADUN: More than 10 days after the Dharma Sansad event in Haridwar in which the participating seers delivered alleged hate speeches calling for violence against minorities, police investigating the case are yet to summon the accused for interrogation or making any arrest, raising questions over what many call a slow probe.
The case is being investigated by a sub-inspector rank police officer of Kotwali police station. In the case, the Haridwar police served notices to Jitendra Narayan Tyagi (formerly Waseem Rizwi), and Annapurna Maa.
Under the notice served under section 41(a) of CrPC, the two were asked to present themselves before police or judiciary as and when asked. The police couldn’t serve the notice to Dharamdas Maharaj as he was not present at his residence in Haridwar.
Questions are being raised in several quarters on whether police are actually willing to take any concrete action. The questions assumed significance after a video showed the accused of hate speech and the officer probing the case sharing laughs on December 29. The video went viral on social media drawing widespread criticism.
State DGP Ashok Kumar took note of the incident and sought a report from the Haridwar senior superintendent of police (SSP) to know “under which circumstances it happened.”
SSP Yogendra Singh Rawat denied that the police are “deliberately carrying out a slow probe in the incident,” saying they have registered a case and are taking
“all possible legal action.”
“It would be wrong to say that the police delayed action against the accused or are carrying out a slow probe. Soon after the videos of the hate speech went viral, police registered a case after a local resident lodged a complaint against it,” said Rawat.
“Initially the case had just one named accused but as the probe unfolded, more names were added. Police are taking all necessary action as per law.”
However, if a senior police officer posted at the state police headquarters (PHQ) is to be believed, Haridwar district police registered the case “after a delay of over 12 hours.”
“The incident was a very serious one as the participants in the event called for violence against a particular community without any hesitation. After the videos went viral on December 22, the PHQ after carrying out it own initial inquiry, gave directions to the Haridwar police to register a case on December 23 morning. But the case was registered in the evening after a delay of about 12 hours,” the officer said, wishing not to be named.
“The delay on the part of Haridwar police suggested that the SSP and his subordinates concerned were worried about possible reactions from some rightwing organisations. However, there has been no political pressure on the police to take no action against the accused. Despite this, there was a delay in the registration of the case against the accused.”
State DGP Kumar said, “The police is committed to taking all possible action against the accused as per law…. police will take the case to the appropriate conclusion.”
On Friday, over 160 prominent citizens, including four former chiefs of naval staff and one former chief of air staff, wrote an open letter to President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on “national security and incitement to violence”, citing Haridwar Dharma Sansad and another one in Delhi.The signatories of the letter included former navy chiefs Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas (retd) and Admiral RK Dhowan (retd), and former chief of air staff Air Marshal SP Tyagi (retd), apart from some retired bureaucrats, journalists, lawyers, economists and students. “we are seriously perturbed by the content of speeches made during a threeday religious conclave called Dharma Sansad held in Haridwar from December 17-19,” the letter said. Urging the Centre to take action against the people involved in such incidents, they wrote, “Regardless of which persons or parties initiated calls for such genocide, government of India and the judiciary, at the highest level, need to take urgent action. We cannot allow such incitement to violence together with public expressions of hatewhich not only constitute serious breaches of internal security, but which could also tear apart social fabric of our nation.”
Congres state president Ganesh Godiyal said, “First of all what happened in the holy town situated on the banks of sacred Ganga at the Dharma Sansad was highly condemnable and unpardonable. The so-called seers called for open violence against the minorities in the country. But what perturbed the most was the delayed action by police and no arresting of the accused so far.”
Drawing a comparison of a similar incident in Raipur in Chhattisgarh where the Congress is in power, Godiyal said, “A similar event happened in Raipur where one of the participants had used highly objectionable words against Mahatma Gandhi. But there, CM Bhupesh Baghel immediately ordered an FIR against him. The police registered a case without a delay and then arrested the accused within a couple of days from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. That kind of action was missing in Uttarakhand, with its CM Pushkar Singh Dhami not uttering a single word against the incident.” The state governmentrefuted the allegations, saying “action is being taken as per law.”