New Delhi: A Bengaluru court has directed the city police to investigate the allegations of hate speech against Hindu Janagaruthi Samiti coordinator Chandru Moger as a cognisable offence under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Despite several appeals by concerned citizens for registering an FIR in the matter, the Sanjaynagar police had earlier only registered a non-cognisable report (NCR) on the complaint.The Wire had earlier reported how the Bengaluru police was reluctant to register a FIR in the matter. Subsequently, a group of four social activists – consisting of advocate Murtuza Ali Baig, paralegals Khizer-e-Alam and Waseem Raja, and engineer Sheikh Zia Nomani – had approached senior police officers to get an FIR registered.Nomani, who is also Bengaluru spokesperson of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Karnataka president of the Bandhua Mukti Morcha, had told The Wire that when the police failed to act against Moger on its own, they had lodged a complaint against him at the Sanjay Nagar police station on April 6. In this, they demanded registration of an FIR against the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti coordinator for maligning a community and invoking “communal hate and violence”.The complaint had also stated that “communalism is a threat to national integrity” and that “comments like these promote religious fundamentalism and fanaticism and are against the unity and integrity of our country”. It had alleged that Moger had made the comments “with a deliberate malicious intention to harm, damage and undermine one particular community and invoke communal hate and violence”.Nomani said though the complaint was also marked to the commissioner of police, Bengaluru city, the police did not act on the matter. He also wrote in a Facebook post that “(We) have been struggling to file FIR against the person who called to boycott Muslim fruit vendors, accusing them of ‘Spitting Jihad’.”He said they met commissioner Kamal Pant on April 7 afternoon and he gave them a sealed envelope and directed them to meet the deputy commissioner of police (north), whom they met later that same evening at his Yeshvanthpur office. “The DCP opened the envelope and said ‘I will examine this’. We asked him why an FIR is not being lodged, even when the offences are cognisable. He responded, ‘I will examine this and we will get back’,” Nomani wrote.Nomani added that while the were also supposed to meet additional commissioner of police Sandeep Patil on Friday, April 8, as the commissioner had insisted, the meeting did not take place as the officer told him, “The DCP North is the competent authority and he reports to the commissioner of police. So be in touch with the DCP North, he will give an update.”On not being able to get any FIR registered for three days, the group of four decided to move court. Nomani had stated that “we are drafting a complaint and will be approaching a court”.Subsequently, a petition was filed by Alam, Raja and Nomani on April 13 “for immediate intervention by the court of law” and for seeking directions to the Bengaluru Police to book and investigate the offences committed by the accused, Moger.The petitioners contended that “such hate speeches can lead to serious law and order situation and affect the livelihood of Muslim fruit vendors, creating an atmosphere of communal hatred in the state of Karnataka,” a release issued by them said.In an order in the matter, the court of the magistrate directed the Sanjaynagar police on April 18 to investigate the matter under Section 156(3) of the CrPC and accepted that the offences were indeed cognisable, the statement by the petitioners said.It added that the petitioners “will continue to fight such forces of hatred who intend to create an atmosphere of communal tension in the State by targeting the innocent members of the society and putting them at risk of serious attacks.”
