Action sought as per Supreme court guidelines against those spreading communal hatred
Action sought as per Supreme court guidelines against those spreading communal hatred
Dehradun, June 25
Representatives from various social organizations and political parties met the District Magistrate (DM) and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Dehradun to demand strict action against individuals spreading communal hatred. The officials were informed that there are six or seven individuals in Dehradun district who are consistently spreading hate and the representatives warned that if action is not taken against them, protests would be staged on the streets.
District Magistrate Ashish Chauhan stated that this is his first posting in Dehradun and assured that he would gather information about such elements in the area and instruct the police to take action against them. SSP Pramendra Dobhal mentioned that a case has already been registered against one of these individuals and an investigation is underway, adding that action would soon be taken against the others as well. The representatives pointed out that these individuals have been clearly seen in video footage— from Kotdwar to Bairagiwala—engaging in hate speech and violence. However, instead of registering cases against them by name, FIRs are often filed against “unknown persons.”
A memorandum was also submitted to the DM and SSP. The memorandum demanded the arrest of all the accused involved in the murder of Vinod Kumar in Bairagiwala and called for the strictest possible action against them. Regret was expressed over the fact that, following this incident, certain communal elements attempted to spread hatred in Bairagiwala, even going so far as to pelt stones at the police. Hate-filled statements and inflammatory language were used to disguise the incident as communal. It was alleged that an individual named Lalit Sharma crossed all limits by stating that they would attempt to extract and kill the unborn children in the wombs of Muslim women. Furthermore, the individual spoke of personally using bulldozers to demolish mosques. Such language is extremely objectionable, and the intentions behind it are highly criminal. The memorandum also recalled the Supreme Court’s order—issued specifically in the context of the Uttarakhand case—stating that the police should not wait for a formal complaint regarding hate speech but should instead register an FIR ‘suo motu’. However, recent incidents indicate that FIRs have been registered against “unknown persons” even when the identities of the perpetrators were clearly visible.
The delegation included Kamala Pant, Nirmala Bisht, Vimala Koli, and Manju Balaudi from the Uttarakhand Mahila Manch; Hariom Pali and Trilochan Bhatt from the Uttarakhand Insaniyat Manch; Kamlesh Khantwal from the Bharat Gyan-Vigyan Samiti; Rajendra Shah from the Chetna Andolan; Indresh Maikhuri from CPI(ML); Rajendra Purohit from CPM; Sujata Paul and Pawan Kshetri from the Congress; as well as Lalafat Hussain, Manish, and Almashuddin Siddiqui, among others.
