Year after ‘economic boycott of Muslims’, Gujarat court orders registering of FIR

As per the petition, on July 16 last year, there was a “clash” between two groups which was “misused” to “poison the minds of people living in harmony, against the Muslims and leading to hostility on religious lines between different communities” in the village.

The accused allegedly circulated video clips with messages against the Muslim community after which “the shops of many Muslims who were doing business as tenants, were vacated”.

The petitioner said that he came across video clips on social media with such messages, made a CD of the clips and went to Balisana police station repeatedly to complain, but there was no action.

“On September 8, 2023, we filed a complaint before the Superintendent of Police and on September 11, 2023, we also sent one to Balisana police station. After that, they recorded our statement on September 21, but till today there has been no action taken against the accused, and under the above circumstances we have filed this complaint in your court,” the petition said.

The petitioner, identified as one MS Shaikh, described the accused as “politically influential and headstrong” and expressed fear of harm coming to their families and of “innocent persons from the Muslim community being wrongly implicated in cases”.

The report submitted by the Balisana police station recommended “filing (closing)” the case as it saw no more instances of “fights or assaults”. The police report said that on August 16, 2023, “there was a fight between the Patel and the Muslim community”. The Patels, in their statement to the police, alleged that the “Muslim community of Balisana village attacked the youth of the Hindu community” and tried to disrupt the harmony. Thus, the majority community decided to take back the shops rented out to them.

“They did not coerce the people of any community nor forced anyone to vacate the shop, nor did they beat or abuse them nor did they want to have enmity with the people of the Muslim community but they did not want to have anything to do with us in case they quarrelled with again,” the police report said.

The police, while closing the case, also noted that “during investigation of the application by the complainant there was no criminality found”.

The affidavits by 18 people whose shops were owned by Hindus were submitted to the court.

The petitioner has sought criminal investigation under sections 153 (a) and 153 (b) of the Indian Penal Code (Any person by spoken or written words or by signs or visible signs or otherwise by reason of religion, caste, place of birth, domicile, language, caste or caste or otherwise, discriminates against a different religious, ethnic or linguistic group; Promotes or attempts to promote feelings of enmity, hatred or enmity between groups or castes or communities or, commits an act which is prejudicial to harmony between different religious, ethnic, linguistic or territorial groups or castes or communities and which disturbs or is likely to disturb public peace).

The court noted that prima facie a crime had been committed and warranted a cognisable offence to be registered.