The Uttarakhand Police on Sunday added the names of two more people in the first information report registered in connection with the three-day anti-Muslim hate conclave at a religious event in Haridwar city where calls for genocide and violence were made, The Hindu reported.
No arrests have been made so far in the case, even as opposition leaders, Muslim organisations and activists questioned government inaction.
The police added the names of Sadhvi Annapurna- the ‘Mahamandleshwar’ of the Niranjini Akhada and the general secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, and priest Dharamdas Maharaj.
Last week, major religious leaders, right-wing activists and Hindutva organisations came together at Haridwar for a “dharam sansad”, or a religious parliament in Haridwar city between December 17 and December 19 where speakers called for purchasing arms and ammunition in order to kill Muslims.
Sadhvi Annapurna had openly called for genocide: “If you want to finish off their population then we are ready to kill them,” she can be heard saying in a video. “Even if 100 of us are ready to kill 20 lakh of them, then we will be victorious.”
The other accused, Dharamdas Maharaj, called for the assassination of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh “following in the footsteps of Nathuram Godse [Gandhi’s assassin]”, referring to Singh’s 2006 statement that minorities must have the first claim on resources of the country.
After her comments sparked outrage, Annapurna had told NDTV that the Constitution was wrong. “Indians should pray to Nathuram Godse,” she had said.
The FIR filed on December 23 named just one person – former Shia Waqf board chief Jitendra Narayan Tyagi – who had changed his name from Wasim Rizvi after converting to Hinduism on December 6. The Haridwar police have registered a case under Section 153A of the IPC (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), entailing a maximum punishment of five years.
On Sunday, 76 advocates of the Supreme Court also wrote to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, asking him to take suo motu cognisance of the Haridwar case and a separate event held in Delhi on December 19.
The Delhi event was organised by the Hindutva group Hindu Yuva Vahini. Suresh Chavhanke, the editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News, 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 speeches of the speakers, the advocates said, pose a “grave threat not just to the unity and integrity of our country but also endanger the lives of millions of Muslim citizens”.
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Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
