New Delhi: AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi, named in the Delhi Police’s first information report for allegedly spreading hate, has given an 11-point rejoinder against the allegations.
Claiming that he has seen “an excerpt of the FIR”, Owaisi said, “This is the first FIR I’ve seen that’s not specifying what the crime is.”
1. I’ve received an excerpt of the FIR. This is the first FIR I’ve seen that’s not specifying what the crime is. Imagine an FIR about a murder where cops don’t mention the weapon or that the victim bled to death. I don’t know which specific remarks of mine have attracted the FIR pic.twitter.com/0RJW1z71aN
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) June 9, 2022
He next said, “It appears that Delhi Police lacks the courage to pursue cases against Yati, Nupur Sharma & Naveen Jindal etc. This is why the delayed & weak response.”
DCP (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations) KPS Malhotra told ThePrint, “All tweets pertaining to the matter are enclosed in the FIR.”
The Delhi Police had Wednesday also said that two FIRs were filed against several people, including Sharma and Jindal, for “spreading hateful messages, inciting groups and creating an atmosphere detrimental to public tranquility”. Sharma had made derogatory comments against Prophet Muhammad in a television chat show and Jindal in his tweets.
“The cases have been registered against those who were posting and sharing messages against the maintenance of public tranquility and were inciting people on the basis of various divisive lines,” Public Relations Officer of the Delhi Police said in a statement.
“One case has been registered against Nupur Sharma and another one has been registered against multiple social media entities based on the analysis. Notices will be sent to the social media intermediaries for the details,” the statement further read.
Controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand has also been booked for alleged inflammatory remarks on social media.
Owaisi continued, “In fact, Yati has violated his bail conditions repeatedly by inciting genocide against Muslims & insulting Islam. Delhi Police were probably trying to think of a way of registering an FIR against these people without offending Hindutvadi fanboys/girls.”
He also said the Delhi Police was suffering from both “sideism” or “balance-waad” syndromes. “One side has openly insulted our Prophet while the other side has been named to assuage BJP supporters & make it look like there was hate speech on both sides,” he said.
Pointing out that the actual hate speech was by ruling party spokespersons, he said this was being “equated to random posts on social media with no social or political standing”.
He said right-wingers have been used to going scot free and it was only when there was outrage for weeks and international condemnation, that “weak action” was taken.
“In contrast, Muslim students, journalists, activists have been put in prison for the crime of merely being Muslim,” he tweeted.
‘Will fight FIR legally’
Decrying the culture among Hindutva organisations that “rewards hate speeches and extremism with promotions”, Owaisi said people who attempted to shoot him wanted to become prominent Hindutva politicians.
“If Modi were sincere he would have stamped out hate speech without indulging in fake balance-vaad,” Owaisi tweeted.
Saying one could not equate “criticising hate speeches” with “giving hate speeches”, the leader said he would fight the FIR legally and would not be intimidated by such tactics.
Some of the others booked in the FIRs were writer and journalist Saba Naqvi, Pooja Shakun Pandey, Maulana Mufti Nadeem, Shadab Chauhan, Abdur Rehman, Gulzar Ansari and Anil Kumar Meena.
(With inputs by Bismee Taskin)
Also read: Delhi cops file FIR against Nupur Sharma, Naveen Jindal, Owaisi, Yati for inciting people