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Journalism of Courage
Nearly a month after the Gujarat High Court directed the Mehsana district police to file an FIR in a March 2023 case of hate speech delivered by a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at a gathering in Kadi, an FIR was lodged on Monday for promoting enmity between groups and outraging religious feelings.
The FIR lodged at Kadi police station, a year and a half after the alleged incident took place at a gathering held by the VHP in the area, is based on the complaint of Vadodara-based Karuna Parmar, who is attached to the Lady Pillar hospital in Fatehgunj. In her complaint, Parmar has said that she is lodging the complaint on the instructions of the administrator of the hospital, Manjula Dominican Tuscano, who had moved the Gujarat High Court last year after her complaints to Mehsana district police seeking an FIR in the case had gone “unheard”.
At the alleged meeting that took place on March 3, 2023, the VHP leader — who is yet to be identified — allegedly insulted the Pope and religious personnel of Christian faith and ‘instigated’ locals to excommunicate the Christian community from the state.
In her petition before the High Court, Tuscano had said, “Hundreds of nuns, bishops and persons connected with various churches of the state had come across one incident of an inflammatory and dangerous speech made by an unidentified individual purportedly in a meeting organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Mehsana district, wherein the individual addressing the public at large had very explicitly and candidly asked the attendees that the members of the Christian Community residing in the state of Gujarat must be taken to task and excommunicated from the state…”
The petition had further stated that Tuscano, “after considering the seriousness and sensitivity of the incident” had “immediately made a written complaint” on March 28, 2023 along with one video of the alleged incident to the Police Inspector, B- Division Police Station, Mehsana and the Superintendent of Police, District Mehsana by way of a registered post. “However, despite the service of such representation/complaint, no action whatsoever pertaining to the registration of the FIR has been undertaken… FIR deserves to be lodged against such individuals for effortlessly damaging and threatening the faith of the citizens professing Christianity,” the petition stated.
On October 15, Justice Sandeep Bhatt directed the police to lodged an FIR in an order that states, “Considering the averments made in this petition, it is open for the petitioner to approach the authority concerned with relevant documents, if the FIR is not registered pursuant to the earlier communication of the petitioner within a period of two weeks from today.”
Advocate Utkarsh Dave, who represented Tuscano in the HC, said, “It is sad to see that in such serious cases of hate speech, police fails to do its duty and FIR is registered after the High court’s order. ” Police has lodged an FIR against an unidentified person under IPC section 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups) and [295(A)] (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings).
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