Officer booked SP MLA Abu Azmi without seeing video: Court’s pre-arrest bail order

After his comments on Aurangzeb, Azmi faced two FIRs, in Thane and at Marine Drive police station, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to hurting religious sentiments, insulting religious beliefs and defamation. The FIRs referred to Azmi’s statements while speaking to reporters on March 3 in the Maharashtra Assembly premises.

“Before parting with this order I would like to caution the applicant to exercise restraint on himself while giving interviews, having regards to prevailing circumstances. Any irresponsible statement can flare riots and create law and order problem. I hope applicant being a senior politician will understand his responsibility,” said Additional Sessions judge V G Raghuwanshi.

Police had opposed Azmi’s pre-arrest bail, with the prosecutor stating that the comments came at a time when the religious sentiments of people are “volatile” after the release of a film.

Azmi, through his lawyer Mubin Solkar, had said that the interview was taken out of context for “political mileage”. He also said that he immediately released a video on March 4 in which he stated he had never said anything wrong against great national personalities, and that if he had said anything wrong, he would withdraw that statement.

“The offence relates to some statements made in the course of interview. That means investigating officer does not need custody for seizure of any article, he does not need custody for interrogation. Applicant is a politician and businessman. Therefore, I don’t think that he will run away from the course of justice. He undertakes to cooperate (wth the) investigating officer and abide by all conditions those may be imposed by this court,” the order said.