Special Investigation Team to probe hate speeches made in Haridwar

Uttarakhand: A five-member Special Investigation Team will be formed in order to probe the incidents of viral hate speeches made at the 'Dharma Sansad' conclave held in Hardware in the month of December 2021.

"A 5-member SIT has been constituted under an SP-level officer to probe the matter of the Dharma Sansad hate speech case in Haridwar. Legal action will be taken against those found guilty," DIG Garhwal Karan Singh Nagnyal was quoted as saying by press agency ANI.

In addition to this, two more names have been added to the FIR filed against those who allegedly made provocative and inflammatory statements about the Muslim community in India. Event organiser Yati Narasimhanand and seer Sindhu Sagar attended the event which was held at Niketan Dham in Haridwar for three days from December 16 onwards.

Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code (destruction, damage of a place of worship or an object held sacred) was also added to the FIR apart from Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language).

The main accused so far are Waseem Rizvi alias Jitendra Tyagi, Sadhvi Annapurna and Dharamdas. Tyagi and Sadhvi Annapurna's speeches went viral on social media, with Annapurna on camera calling for Hindu 'soldiers' to rise up and kill Muslims amongst other, more communal statements.

Tyagi converted to Hinduism shortly after he claimed he was "expelled" from Islam after writing a controversial book on the Prophet Muhammad. He was a member of the Shia Waqf Board.

A group of over 100 people, including Army veterans, journalists and activists had written a letter condemning the communal and inflammatory speeches made at the event and formally requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind to step in and prevent more such atrocities from taking place.