New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday told the Supreme Court that an FIR in an alleged hate crime in Noida in 2021 should have been registered for the offences, including those of imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration.
Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, appearing for Uttar Pradesh, told a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that an FIR in the case should have been lodged for the alleged offences including under Section 153-B of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Section 153-B deals with the offence of imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration.
The top court on February 3 questioned the UP government as to why appropriate provisions of the IPC were not invoked in the FIR lodged in the alleged hate crime in 2021.
“In the first instance, they should have registered the FIR for (section) 153-B… They have not done it,” Nataraj told the bench on Monday.
He said the chargesheet was already filed in the case.
Nataraj said one of the solutions could be that the state could file an application before the concerned court for further investigation in the case and send a proposal for obtaining a sanction from the government.
He said the other solution could be a direction from the apex court to proceed further in the matter.
“Better it is that you do it. It will look better on your part,” the bench said.
The counsel for the petitioner said the top court might give a direction in this regard.
The bench referred to the submissions made by Nataraj and said the authorities would proceed in the matter.
When the petitioner’s counsel said the apex court could consider awarding compensation to the petitioner, the bench said, “So far as the compensation is concerned, you will have to seek a remedy before the appropriate forum.” Nataraj said the state would move an application for further investigation in the case before the concerned court within a week.
The top court was hearing a plea seeking a fair investigation and trial on a complaint by a senior citizen who claimed that he was abused and tortured in an alleged hate crime in Noida in July 2021.
The petitioner’s counsel had earlier argued that an FIR ought to have been registered for the alleged offences punishable under sections 153-B and 295-A of the IPC.
Section 295-A pertains to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
The plea has also sought initiation of appropriate departmental or punitive proceedings against some police officers of Gautam Buddh Nagar district for allegedly failing to comply with the preventive and remedial measures as directed by the apex court in one of its earlier verdicts.
The petitioner claimed in his plea that he was a victim of a “dastardly hate crime” in Noida where he was “abused, tortured and systematically stripped of his dignity” by a group of individuals on July 4, 2021.
Detailing the incident, the petitioner has said he was attacked and derogatory words related to his “religious identity” were hurled at him.
The plea claimed that the petitioner was attacked because of “his beard and ostensible Muslim identity”. PTI ABA ABA KSS KSS
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