New Delhi: The Delhi Police has registered an FIR against two Twitter handles — one of a journalist and the other of a news website — for allegedly inciting hatred between communities after they reported on Twitter that Hindu Mahapanchayat members had on Sunday attacked journalists —some of them for their religious identity.
In the tweets, the journalists had in detail described how the mob had got violent with them after finding out that they were Muslim. The Delhi Police claimed that their reporting of what had happened to them could have vitiated the atmosphere.
This is the fourth FIR registered in connection with the event and no arrest has been made so far, the officials said. Controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand was booked along with other speakers on Sunday for alleged hate speeches at the event, held without police permission in north Delhi's Burari ground on Sunday. These accused, already arrested and bailed out in other hate speech cases, had also violated their bail conditions.
The other two FIRs have been registered against "unknown" persons based on the complaints of the journalists who were assaulted in two different instances.
The Twitter handles booked belong to journalist Meer Faisal @meerfaisal01, who works for a news portal, and another news portal "Article 14" (@Article14live), police said, adding an investigation is currently underway.
Faisal told PTI that he stands by his tweet and that he cannot comment on police action because he has neither seen the FIR copy nor has he received any information from the police yet.
The official Twitter handle of news portal "Article 14" had also posted a tweet the same day alleging that "five journalists, four of them Muslim and one on assignment for the said news portal, were taken to the Mukherji Nagar police station after a mob at the event discovered their religion, attacked them and deleted videos".
When contacted, the editor of the portal said he is yet to see a copy of the FIR and refused to comment.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani said, "An FIR under section 505 (2) (Statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered in Mukherjee Nagar police station against some Twitter handles for tweets in circulation having content which could incite enmity, hatred and ill-will between two communal groups and investigation is taken up."
The police said that they are scanning the purported videos of the event which featured the speakers who allegedly gave "hate speeches" at the event.
Police said they had denied permission for the event but the organisers still went ahead and around 700-800 people were present at the venue.
According to police, some of the speakers, including Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, Suresh Chavhanke, chief editor of Sudarshan News, allegedly uttered words promoting disharmony, feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between two communities. Some of them were also in clear violation of their bail condition.
The mahapanchayat was organised by Preet Singh of Save India Foundation, who had also held the Jantar Mantar hate event.
Singh was arrested by the Delhi Police for making a hate speech at the Jantar Mantar event and bailed out under the condition that he not indulge in any such activities like the one for which he had been arrested.
(With PTI inputs)