Muslim student leader and National Secretary of Fraternity Movement Sharjeel Usmani has moved to the Bombay High Court for quashing the FIR registered against him for his speech at Elgar Parishad 2021 in Pune.
Usmani was booked by Pune Police on February 2 after a complaint was filed against him by Pradeep Gawade a regional leader of BJP’s youth wing, the Yuva Morcha. Gawade is a former Akhil Bhartiya Vishwa Parishad (ABVP) member, the student wing of far-right Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
In his complaint, Gawade alleged that Usmani made provocative and offensive statements against the Hindu community, the judiciary and the parliament.
However, Usmani has denied the allegations and in his petition claimed that the accusations made by the Saffron group are baseless and made out of context based on few statements.
“It is a settled position of law that effects of those words must be judged from the standards of reasonable, strong-minded, firm and courageous men and not those who scent danger in every hostile point of view,” Usmani said in the petition.
Sharjeel Usmani was also booked under sedition and several other charges by Uttar Pradesh Police, in Lucknow’s Hazratganj Police in February.
Amid hate campaigns and several complaints against Usmani, the organisers of Elgar Parishad has extended their support. “We condemn those Brahminwadis who have targeted abused made threats to life and burnt effigies of Sharjeel Usmani by crudely reducing him to just his Muslim identity. We are firmly standing with Sharjeel Usmani. Here we are declaring that we will intensify our efforts to struggle for annihilation of caste-class-patriarchy and Islamophobia,” they said in a statement.
The Fraternity Movement has also come in defence of Sharjeel Usmani and denounced the FIRs and complaints made against its National Secretary and said, “These perpetual hate campaigns are intended to languish the vocal Muslim youth in jail permanently”.
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Ghazala Ahmad is the Delhi Correspondent for The Cognate.
