Overview
- A Delhi sessions court on May 27 issued notice to Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and to the Delhi Police on activist Harsh Mander’s revision plea seeking registration of an FIR for alleged hate speech.
- Mander’s petition says Sarma told a Digboi rally on January 27 that ‘four to five lakh Miya voters’ would be removed from electoral rolls and urged measures to make Bengali-origin Muslims leave Assam.
- A Judicial Magistrate had on April 20 refused to direct police to register an FIR, saying the magistrate lacked territorial jurisdiction and that the record did not show enmity or incitement within its area.
- In the sessions court Mander’s lawyers invoked Section 173(1) and the MHA SOP on Zero FIR to argue complaints can be lodged irrespective of where an offence occurred, and the court listed the matter for July 15.
- Separate PILs in the Gauhati High Court are pending after Sarma filed an affidavit saying petitioners relied on selective extracts and asking for full transcripts and recordings while investigations and several FIRs are reported to be underway.