New Delhi: The Delhi Police has registered a fresh case against Sudarshan TV head Suresh Chavhanke over hate speech at the December 2021 Hindu Yuva Vahini event in the national capital.
The Supreme Court on April 22 had pulled up Delhi Police for its affidavit which concluded that no hate speech was made at the event. The police had told the top court that the gathering was made up of people who were motivated to “save the ethics of their community”.
On December 19, 2021, Chavhanke at the Hindu Yuva Vahini event was seen administering an oath to a group of people to “die for and kill” to make India a “Hindu rashtra”, or a Hindu nation. The video of the said oath was posted on Twitter by Chavhanke himself.
Esha Pandey, deputy commissioner of police, Southeast Delhi had said in an earlier affidavit, “None of the words spoken during the events in any manner whatsoever overtly and explicitly described Indian Muslims as usurpers of territory, and as predators of land, livelihoods and of Hindu women, and nothing was said or done which could create an environment of paranoia amongst any religion, caste or creed.”
There is no use of such words which mean or could be interpreted as “open calls of genocide of Muslims”, the police had said in the controversial affidavit.
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Police had further said that the fundamental freedom of speech could not be suppressed unless it threatened “community interests.”
According to the Hindu, the apex court had expressed incredulity at the tone of the affidavit, asking the police whether “it had really applied its mind” while figuring out what it wanted to say in the affidavit, after which the police agreed to “file a better affidavit”.
In the new affidavit, the police have said that a first information report (FIR) has been filed on May 4 at Okhla Industrial Area Police Station under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, birth, etc.), 295A (deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 298 (uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent, to wound the religious feelings of any person) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, NDTV reported.
“All links in the complaint and other material available in the public domain were analysed, and a video was found on YouTube,” the police told the news outlet.
The case will be next heard on May 9.
