The Delhi High Court on Wednesday allowed several political leaders to file petitions as parties to the proceedings seeking an FIR and probe for allegedly making hate speeches to the February 2020 riots. The High Court orally said that those who wish to file reply to the main petitions can do so within a week and listed the matter for further hearing on August 2.
A bench of justices Siddharth Mridul and Amit Sharma, in its order, observed that the proposed defendants do not oppose the applications seeking to implicate them as parties, except that the allegations made against them in the applications are not satisfied. has been crossed out and the petitioners have been put up. For hard evidence. “We will represent you and listen to you,” the bench told the counsel for one of the leaders.
The court, while hearing a batch of petitions related to the 2020 riots in northeast Delhi, said that the amended memorandum of the parties should also be filed. Earlier this year, the court had issued notices to several politicians including Anurag Thakur (BJP), Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Congress), Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others on two impeachment applications in the case. ,
An indictment application was filed by Sheikh Mujtaba Farooq, who sought an FIR against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma for hate speech. Another application was made by the petitioner – Lawyers Voice – in which a hate speech FIR was filed against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as well as Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan, AIMIM leader Recording was requested. Akbaruddin Owaisi, former AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan, advocates Mehmood Pracha, Harsh Mander, Mufti Mohammad Ismail, Swara Bhaskar, Umar Khalid, former Bombay High Court judge BG Kolse Patil and others.
In the application, filed by advocates Sneha Mukherjee and Siddhartha Seem, Farooq has said that after the political leaders named in his petition “engaged in hate speech and incitement to the killing of peaceful protesters, attacks started all over Delhi”. The voice of lawyers, represented by advocates Satyaranjan Swain and Archana Sharma, has said in the application that public discourse cannot become a tool to promote speech which is against public order and if FIR is not registered, then false Workers will be encouraged.
Apart from seeking action against those who allegedly gave hate speech in the backdrop of the introduction of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, other petitions have also sought relief including constitution of an SIT, FIR against police officers who allegedly were. Disclosure of persons involved in violence, and arrested and detained. In response to these prayers, the police had earlier said that it has already formed three Special Investigation Teams (SITs) under the Crime Branch and so far there is no evidence that its officers were involved in the violence.
The police had earlier said in their affidavits that the investigation into the riots has so far not revealed any evidence that political leaders incited or participated in the violence. Earlier, asking the parties to reconcile the issues, the court had noted that the Supreme Court, in an order dated December 17, 2021, requested it to be disposed of expeditiously, preferably within three months, against some of the FIRs. The petition sought to be filed to politicians for their alleged hate speeches that allegedly led to the North-East Delhi riots.
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