New Delhi: Rights activist Harsh Mander has moved the Supreme Court to seek an FIR against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, and Parvesh Verma after High Court deferred the hearing of the case till April 13.
The BJP leader’s inflammatory speeches, supporting the amended Citizenship Act, were allegedly held responsible for violence in North East Delhi which killed more than 46 and injured over 200.
Appealing against the Delhi High Court order, Mander has sought an urgent directive to the Delhi Police to file FIRs against the politicians.
The high court had last week accepted the Centre’s logic that the time was not conducive to register hate speech cases and given the government four weeks to file a counter-affidavit in response to the plea.
Apart from Thakur and Mishra, Mander had sought FIRs against BJP MP Parvesh Verma and MLA Abhay Verma for making incendiary statements that allegedly incited mob attacks and riots in northeast Delhi.
The bench, which comprised Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar adjourned the hearing of the petition, a day Justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh gave the Delhi Police 24 hours to take a ‘conscious decision’ on filing the FIRs. However, the matter reverted to the chief justice’s court and the police found itself off the hook.
The court’s order came after solicitor general Tushar Mehta submitted that the situation was not “conducive” for registration of FIRs. “The condition is not conducive at this moment. FIRs will be registered at an appropriate time,” Mehta said.
Harsh Mander had earlier said: “I would declare myself Muslim if CAB passes Parliament”