Sedition charges against Dr Zafarul Islam Khan for warning bigots sparks row

coastaldigest.com web desk
May 2, 2020

Newsroom, May 2: The Delhi Police’s move to book Delhi Minorities Commission chairman Zafarul Islam Khan under sedition charges over his social media statement condemning Hindutva bigots has raised many eyebrows. 

A pubic statement has been issued in solidarity with Zafarul Islam Khan by a group of NGOs and citizens which condemned the media trial targeting Khan.

The statement demanded legal action against those who are distorting Khan's Facebook post and spreading false propaganda against him.

Delhi Police Special Cell registered the FIR against Khan on the complaint of a Vasant Kunj resident. The complaint came to the Lodhi Colony office of the special cell, after the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Safdarjung Enclave forwarded it.

The investigation has been handed over to special cell inspector Praveen Kumar.

According to the FIR, Khan has been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code -- 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc,).

Khan on April 28 had posted controversial comments on his Facebook page. "Mind you, bigots, Indian Muslims have opted until now not to complain to the Arab and Muslim world about your hate campaigns and lynchings and riots. The day they are pushed to do that, bigots will face an avalanche," Khan had written on Facebook.

However, the Delhi Minorities Commission's chief on Friday had apologised for his controversial remark and had said that he never tried to tarnish the image of India. He also removed the controversial post from the social media and issued a prolonged clarification.

 

Comments

JMJ
 - 
Monday, 4 May 2020

Thank god... Our law and order works..... Unforturnately not all the time and most of the time work selectively

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News Network
January 14,2020

New Delhi, Jan 14: The Kerala government has challenged the new Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) before the Supreme Court, becoming the first state to do so amid nationwide protests against the religion-based citizenship law. The Supreme Court is already hearing over 60 petitions against the law.

Kerala's Left-led government in its petition calls the CAA a violation of several articles of the constitution including the right to equality and says the law goes against the basic principle of secularism in the constitution.

The Kerala government has also challenged the validity of changes made in 2015 to the Passport law and the Foreigners (Amendment) Order, regularising the stay of non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who had entered India before 2015.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), eases the path for non-Muslims in the neighbouring Muslim-majority nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to become Indian citizens. Critics fear that the CAA, along with a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), will discriminate against Muslims.

The Kerala petition says the CAA violates Articles 14, 21 and 25 of the constitution.

While Article 14 is about the right to equality, Article 21 says "no person will be deprived of life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law". Under Article 25, "all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience."

Several non-BJP governments have refused to carry out the NRC in an attempt to stave off the enforcement of the citizenship law.

Over 60 writ petitions have been filed in Supreme Court so far against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Various political parties, NGOs and also MPs have challenged the law.

The Supreme Court will hear the petitions on January 22.

During the last hearing, petitioners didn't ask that the law be put on hold as the CAA was not in force. The Act has, however, come into force from January 10 through a home ministry notification.

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News Network
February 9,2020

Mandya, Feb 9: A youth from Arechakanahalli village of Maddur taluk on Saturday allegedly committed suicide in Bengaluru after his lover got engaged to another man.

The body of the deceased, Darshan, was found hanging from the celising of his room in Bengaluru. According to Darshan's relatives, he was in love with a girl for the past few years.

Darshan had wanted to marry her, much to the chagrin of her parents, it is said.

The girl's parents had allegedly warned him of dire consequences if he did not stay clear from their daughter. In the meanwhile, she got engaged to another man.

Feeling left out, Darshan allegedly ended his life. In the suicide note, Darshan has held his lover and some of her relatives responsible for his death. He has also claimed that his family was facing death threat from her family.

There are rumours that Darshan might have been killed after he refused to stop seeing the girl. Though both the families are from the same community, their financial status, sources said, is different.

According to the relative of Darshan, the girl is a close relative to a former minister from Mandya district.

"There are reasons to suspect that Darshan might have been murdered, and a suicide note may have been planted at the crime spot.

A proper investigation should be conducted to unearth the truth," he said.

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News Network
July 28,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 28: Several state Congress leaders, including its President D K Shivakumar, among others, were detained by police as they tried to march towards Raj Bhavan here against the alleged attempts by BJP to topple the party's government in Rajasthan.

Shivakumar, along with Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, state Congress Working President Eshwar Khandre, Salim Ahmed among others were stopped by the police midway as they marched from KPCC office towards Raj Bhavan.

Congress leaders then staged a dharna at the place where they were stopped. Addressing the gathering, Shivakumar accused the BJP of trying to "murder" democracy by destabilizing and removing elected governments.

"We wanted to protest against it and submit a memorandum to the President through the Governor," but the Karnataka government by using police was not letting them proceed towards Raj Bhavan, he said. "Despite our being a peaceful protest, the police stopped us," he said.

Siddaramaiah, echoing similar views, said peaceful protests against injustice was the right of every citizen. Alleging that the BJP was attempting to destabilise and remove the elected government in Rajasthan as it did in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, he said the Governor's office there (Rajasthan) was being 'misused'.

The Governor was working like an agent of the central government, he charged. He said, despite repeated appeals by the Rajasthan cabinet, the Governor there had not convened the assembly session, for the floor test to take place and for Congress to prove its majority. Police subsequently detained Shivakumar and some other Congress leaders and took them to a nearby police station.

They were later released. Meanwhile, as the Congress' protest amid Covid19 pandemic did not follow social distancing norms, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar hit out at that party's leaders. In a tweet Sudhakar said, for Congress leaders getting publicity was more important than social concerns.

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