No space for hate crime… if it is there, it has to be rooted out: SC

The victim has alleged that he hitched a ride in a car and once inside the vehicle, four men robbed and assaulted him, also pulled his beard and mocked his religious identity, contending that this amounted to hate crime.

The Uttar Pradesh Police, however, maintained that it was a robbery by a gang and is yet to find any hate crime angle in it.

Last month, the SC asked the police to produce the case diary and on January 15, 2023, the UP Police filed an FIR in connection with the incident and blamed it on a “screwdriver gang”.

Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadai told the bench, also comprising Justice B V Nagarathna, that the police had failed to register the FIR when the incident happenned in 2021 and had only done so after the SC summoned the case diary. He added that the police had still not added IPC provisions in the FIR which can make it a hate crime.

Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj appearing for UP admitted that there was a “lapse” on the part of the police at the “lower level” and added that a departmental inquiry had been initiated.

“By looking at the materials or subsequent conduct, I have no hesitation to say there has been some kind of lapse from our side. This may be at the lower level,” he said.

Nataraj said that the first FIR against the “screwdriver gang” was lodged on June 26, 2021, and that they were facing as many as eight FIRs. He added that the state had also handed over the probe to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and action is being taken. Justice Joseph, however, sought to know why the police had not added hate crime provisions.