'Unsaid Words in WhatsApp Messages can Amount to Promoting Enmity': Allahabad HC Junks Muslim Man's Petition
New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has held that even if a WhatsApp message does not explicitly mention religion, “unsaid words” and “subtle message” can amount to promoting enmity between religious communities.
A division bench of J.J. Munir and Pramod Kumar Srivastava had passed this ruling on September 26, while dismissing a petition filed by Afaq Ahmad, a resident of Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh.
In the said WhatsApp message, Afaq had allegedly said that his brother had been “framed in a false case by putting political pressure on the police”, and lamented that “a call has been made for a total boycott of my family’s livelihood”. He had also expressed the fear that he may be lynched, reported Indian Express.
On July 30, an FIR against Afaq was registered by a police sub inspector on the basis of this WhatsApp message he sent to two people.
Earlier on July 19, Arif Ahmad, the brother of Afaq, was arrested after RSS worker Sandeep Kaushik filed an FIR accusing Arif of obscenity in public, provoking breach of peace, and criminal intimidation.
Later, additional charges pertaining to rape, administering poison, cheating, forgery, and unlawful religious conversion through misrepresentation or allurement under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 was added to the FIR. Arif remains in jail.
Afaq said that on July 19 this year, he received a call from locals, who asked him to attend a meeting where “members of all communities” were present. Thereafter, he was told that his brother had tried to convert a Hindu woman, and had planned to take her to Dubai.
It was after his brother’s arrest that Afaq had sent the WhatsApp message to two people, expressing his fears. Subsequently, the FIR was based on screenshots of the message taken by one of the alleged recipients.
In the message, Afaq had repeatedly expressed faith in the country’s legal system, saying that “the court will expose the lie”.
But while dismissing Afaq’s petition that sought the quashing of the FIR, the high court found that his “subtle message” suggested his brother was being targeted for his religion, and that could outrage religious feelings.
The court observed that while the message “may not speak per se about religion”, it “definitely conveys an underlying and subtle message that Afaq’s brother has been targeted in a false case because of belonging to a particular religious community”. The court ruled that these “unsaid words” could “prima facie outrage the religious feelings” of others and allowed the police investigation against Afaq to continue, reported Indian Express.
Bijnor police has also filed a second FIR against Afaq under BNS sections pertaining to criminal intimidation and breach of peace and his uncle has also been booked in a separate case.
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