New Delhi: The Delhi police have told the Supreme Court that there were "no words" used that would mean or be interpreted as an open call for genocide of Muslims at the Dharam Sansad event held in the national capital on December 19.
"No specific words against any particular community were used...the persons who gathered were there with the motive to save ethics of their community," said Delhi police in its affidavit filed in response to a petition seeking a probe into the alleged hate speech targeting the Muslim community delivered at the Haridwar Dharam Sansad and Delhi Dharam Sansad. The plea was filed by former High Court judge and senior advocate Anjana Prakash and journalist Qurban Ali.
The Delhi police clarified that it has responded only over the Delhi event and not the one in Haridwar as it is not under its jurisdiction. The police submitted before the top court that the speech by Sudarshan TV's Suresh Chavhanke at the Hindu Yuva Vahini event in Delhi's Govindpuri did not amount to hate speech since none of the words used in the speech by Chavhanke explicitly described Indian Muslims as usurpers of territory or in any manner imply that "Muslims were predators of the land" or that "it could create an environment of paranoia against any religion."
"There is no use of such words which mean or could be interpreted as open calls for genocide of Muslims in order to achieve ethnic cleansing or an open call for the murder of an entire community in the speech," the affidavit stated. The plea stated that between December 17 and 19, 2021, at two separate events organised in Delhi (by the Hindu Yuva Vahini) and Haridwar (by Yati Narsinghanand), hate speeches were made, consisting of open calls for genocide of Muslims in order to achieve ethnic cleansing.
On January 12, the apex court had ordered the Uttarakhand government, Central government, and Delhi Police to reply to a petition on the Dharm Sansad hate speech case. The affidavit of the Delhi police further submitted that the event and speeches in Delhi were about empowering one's religion to prepare itself to face evils that could endanger its existence. The police also claimed that there must be "tolerance to the views of others."
"We must practise tolerance to the views of others. Intolerance is as much dangerous to democracy as to the person himself. Petitioner is trying to draw an incorrect and absurd inference by isolated passages disregarding the main theme and its message. The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that freedom of expression must be allowed unless community interest is endangered. In this case, the public interest is not endangered," it said.
The Delhi police also refuted the claims of being hand in gloves with the perpetrators of communal hatred since the investigation is based on the evidence of a videotape and there is no scope of tampering with it. On Wednesday, the top court asked the Uttarakhand government to file a status report regarding the progress in the investigation into the speeches made over the Dharm Sansad event held in Haridwar in December 2021. The matter will again be heard on April 22.
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