Hate speech cases against Jitendra Tyagi: SC issues notice

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices on a plea of Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, formerly Syed Waseem Rizvi, for clubbing of all criminal cases against him over his alleged vitriolic speeches against Muslims at the Haridwar dharam sansad in 2021, PTI reported.

A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta took note of the submissions of advocate Anurag Kishore, who said Tyagi, hailing from Lucknow, had against him four criminal cases, of which one was in Srinagar.

He said travelling to Jammu and Kashmir posed significant risks to his life due to the persistent threats and sought clubbing of the case in Srinagar with the rest of the case being tried at Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

The bench issued notices to Jammu and Kashmir, the Uttarakhand government and Danish Hassan, the complainant against Tyagi in Srinagar, seeking their responses in four weeks.

While agreeing to consider clubbing all the criminal cases against him, the bench refused to grant protection against any coercive measures against Tyagi in the pending cases.

Three criminal cases, which were lodged at a police station in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, are pending before the chief judicial magistrate.

A separate complaint case was filed in Srinagar, prompting the court to issue a summons and constitution for a special task force for his arrest.

“Petitioner prays for the issuance of direction…to club/consolidate all the criminal cases filed against the Petitioner throughout the country as there is a grave threat to life and safety of the petitioner…,” his plea said.

Claiming severe threats to his life and safety, Tyagi said his fundamental right to life and liberty under Article 21 was curtailed, preventing him from freely availing his legal remedies.

The plea said he received multiple death threats and "fatwas" were issued against him, including one from Maulana Syed Mohammad Shabibul Husaini, who publicly called for his execution.

Tyagi was granted bail by the apex court in the case earlier.

Another case against him was lodged on a complaint of one Nadeem Ali, who hails from Jwalapur Haridwar in Haridwar Kotwali, on January 2 this year.

Ali alleged that dharam sansad, or a religious conclave, was organised in Haridwar by Hindu sages from December 17 to 19, 2021 and in the garb of this event, the participants were instigated to wage a war against Muslims.

Objectionable words were allegedly used against the Holy Quran and Prophet Mohammad, Ali had said in his complaint, adding these provocative statements had later gone viral on social media.

Tyagi, Yati Narsinghanand, and others, he alleged, circulated these videos.

The FIR alleged an attempt was made by Prabodhanand Giri to spread violence against the people living in Haridwar's mosques.

On Ali's complaint, Tyagi, Narsindhanand Giri, Sagar Sindhu Maharaj, Dharamdas Maharaj, Parmanand Maharaj, Sadhvi Annapurna, Swami Anand Swaroop and others, along with Swami Prabodhanand Giri were booked under various sections of the IPC for allegedly delivering hate speeches in the name of religion at the conclave.