New Delhi: A Delhi sessions court judge Wednesday pulled up Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, saying he should not “disrespect the PM”.
The remark by Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau came a day after she had defended Azad’s right to protest and gave a dressing down to the Delhi Police for having inadequate evidence to back its charges against him.
The court was hearing a bail application filed by Azad, who was arrested on 21 December for protesting against the new citizenship law at Delhi’s Jama Masjid.
As public prosecutor Pankaj Bhatia and Azad’s counsel Mehmood Pracha presented their arguments ahead of the judgment, six tweets by Azad, which were considered to be incriminating by the Delhi Police, were read out in court.
The tweets had been posted by the Bhim Army chief on 20 December.
While Judge Lau didn’t object to most of the tweets, she did comment on two.
The first tweet Lau reacted to was one in which Azad had written “Modi brings the police when he is scared”.
मोदी जब जब डरता है पुलिस को आगे करता है। https://t.co/wwn88zeQUT
— Chandra Shekhar Aazad (@BhimArmyChief) December 18, 2019
“He should not disrespect the PM like this. We all have to respect our officers, it is our country,” the judge said.
In a second tweet, Azad had written, “Ambedkarites do not commit violence, and our protest is peaceful. Those who are inciting violence are from RSS.”
जो हिंसा कर रहें है वो हमारा नही है। हमारा शांतिपूर्वक प्रोटेस्ट ऐतिहासिक जामा मस्जिद पर चल रहा है। अम्बेडकरवादी हिंसा नही करते है। जो हिँसा कर रहे है वो आरएसएस के लोग है हमारे नही। मैं जामा मस्जिद पर ही हूँ और यही रहुँगा। हिंसा करने वाले हमारे आंदोलन को कमजोर करना चाहते है।
— Chandra Shekhar Aazad (@BhimArmyChief) December 20, 2019
To this, Lau said, “Why name RSS and other organisations? Talk about yourself. Talking about others can incite people.”
When judge pulled up Delhi Police
At Tuesday’s hearing, Lau had criticised public prosecutor Bhatia, who had opposed bail, submitting that Azad incited violence through his social media posts.
After some reluctance to share the posts, Bhatia read out some of them. The court noted that these posts merely called for protests against the citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) near Jama Masjid, and there was nothing violent about them.
“Where is the violence? What is wrong with any of these posts? Who says you cannot protest? Have you read the Constitution?” Lau asked the lawyer.
“You are behaving as if Jama Masjid is Pakistan. Even if it was Pakistan, you can go there and protest. Pakistan was a part of undivided India,” she added.
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