A Delhi court has rejected the bail pleas of three men arrested in connection with issuing genocidal threats calling for the killings of Muslims at a Jantar Mantar event on Sunday. The court observed that the “scathing remarks” made by them “are undemocratic and uncalled for from a citizen of this country”.
Link Metropolitan Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain rejected the bail pleas of the accused — Preet Singh, Deepak Singh Hindu and Vinod Sharma — on August 12, Indian Express reported.
The court had on Wednesday granted bail to BJP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay a day after he was arrested for organising the anti-Muslim rally.
The Court found that the sloganeering by two of the accused as seen in a video clipping of the incident was against the values of secularism imbibed in the Constitution.
“In one of the clippings, applicant/accused, as identified by the IO in the video clipping, can be seen with the other accused Deepak Singh, who in one of the video clippings has made scathing remarks which are undemocratic and uncalled for from a citizen of this country where principles like Secularism hold the value of basic feature imbibed in the Constitution. Freedom to express oneself is indeed allowed to be enjoyed by the citizens to the fullest possible extent, yet with every right there is a corresponding duty attached,” the order said.
The court said although the right to “freedom to express oneself is indeed allowed to be enjoyed by the citizens to the fullest possible extent”, the court held that “with every right, there is a corresponding duty attached”.
“The principle behind Section 153A IPC is to preserve religious/communal harmony and it is the duty of every citizen that while he enjoys his right to express himself, he preserves religious harmony. This indeed is the positive aspect of secularism,” the court said.
In the videos of the event, a mob can be seen chanting slogans like, “Jab mulle kaate jayenge, Ram-Ram chillayenge (Muslims will chant Ram-Ram when they will be slaughtered).” Another slogan raised was “Hindustan me rehna hoga, Jai Shree Ram kehna hoga (You will have to chant Jai Shree Ram if you want to live in India).”
Upadhyay had called for the march to demand an end to “colonial-era laws” by setting up a uniform civil code in the country. The organisers had not taken permission for the event.
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