Bengaluru: Police announced on Monday that a case had been filed against Asianet Suvarna News and its anchor, Ajit Hanamakkanavar, for allegedly inciting hatred towards certain communities through a recently aired show.
According to a complaint submitted on May 11 by Tanveer Ahmed, the anchor of a programme titled "Hindu population has decreased, Muslim population has increased enormously" on May 9 at 8:30 p.m. cited a working paper from the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) to support the claim that there was a 7.8% decrease in the Hindu population between 1950 and 2015.
The channel displayed an Indian flag against the backdrop of the Hindu population % and a Pakistani flag against the backdrop of the Muslim population percentage while displaying the population percentage. The complaint claimed that the same Pakistani flag was then used to discuss the country's Muslim population proportion, the New Indian Express reported.
As per the complaint, the anchor claimed that one of the factors contributing to the rise in the Muslim population in India is the absence of a minimum marriage age for Muslims. Additionally, the Social Welfare Department is unable to take action against child marriage complaints because of Islamic personal law, which forces Muslims to marry young and have more children.
"This is blatantly false as the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act prohibits child marriage for all, irrespective of religion. Then, he (the anchor) states that not having children is against the religion of Islam. This is again meant to insult the Muslim community," the complaint said.
A case was filed at the High Grounds Police Station under section 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code (Statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred, or ill will between classes) against the news channel and its anchor in response to the complaint that was received.
BJP leader and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar is associated with the news channel.