The BJP’s only Hyderabad MLA T Raja Singh is no stranger to controversy. Known among the supporters in his constituency Goshamahal as “Tiger Raja” and “Hindu Hriday Samrat”, the 46-year-old MLA has frequently faced action over comments about Muslims. Singh is again in the eye of a storm and this time is being investigated by Mumbai Police for allegedly making communal remarks at a rally organised in the city on Sunday to commemorate the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji. This is the second time in as many years that the BJP leader is under the scanner over comments he has made in Maharashtra. The police initially denied the MLA permission for the rally at Mira Road, where communal tension took place in January, but the Bombay High Court later allowed it on the ground that he would not indulge in any hate speech. Singh then gave a written undertaking to the police agreeing to the condition. तुम्हारे में दम नहीं था हमें रोकने के लिए.. देख बेटा, वह आए भी मीरा रोड पर कार्यक्रम करे भी और तुमको अच्छे से जवाब भी दिए. समझ जाओ, वरना आने वाले समय में हमें समझना पड़ेगा. मैं मीरा रोड और मुंबई के युवाओं को सनातन धर्म के समर्थन में बड़ी संख्या में आने के लिए धन्यवाद देता… pic.twitter.com/EZcmGMFRnC — Raja Singh (@TigerRajaSingh) February 25, 2024 But the police are now investigating Singh for allegedly using derogatory words to refer to Muslims and will seek legal opinion to determine if he violated his undertaking. In August 2022, Singh who has 85 active cases against him and has been convicted in two, was suspended from the BJP and jailed. He returned to the party ahead of the Telangana Assembly polls last year and retained Goshamahal for the third straight time. Cases against the MLA Singh started his journey in politics in 2009 as a municipal councillor in Hyderabad. He was a member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in undivided Andhra Pradesh before quitting to join the BJP amid a Narendra Modi wave in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. According to the affidavit ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, the BJP MLA has 85 active cases against him and has been convicted in two. He faces 36 charges related to promoting enmity between different groups, 29 charges related to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings, 17 charges related to intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace, 13 charges related to criminal intimidation, 12 charges related to provocation with intent to cause rioting, eight charges related to statements conducing to public mischief, four charges related to defiling places of worship. * In 2017, Hyderabad Police booked Singh for referring to the Old City as “mini Pakistan” and saying he was training a private army in the use of arms. Later that year, amid communal tensions in West Bengal, he called on Hindus to respond to communal violence the “same way Hindus did in Gujarat” during the 2002 riots to “prevent Bengal from turning into Bangladesh”. * In 2018, Hyderabad Police registered a case against him for allegedly demanding a ban on the “green book”, referring to the Quran, and claiming it was the “cause of terrorism” in India. * In September 2020, Facebook banned the BJP MLA for calling for Rohingya Muslims and undocumented immigrants to be shot if they do not willingly leave the country. * In August 2022, he was arrested after his alleged remarks against Prophet Muhammad triggered protests across Hyderabad. Singh made the comments in a video shared on social media in response to comedian Munawar Faruqui’s show in the city. While he initially secured bail, the police invoked the Preventive Detention Act citing 104 FIRs against the MLA. He was imprisoned for 76 days until the Telangana High Court quashed his detention on the condition that he would not organise any processions, speak to the media, or make inflammatory speeches. The MLA’s comments also came at a delicate time for the BJP. Two months earlier, the BJP had suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled a leader in Delhi, Naveen Kumar Jindal, for their remarks on Prophet Muhammad. The BJP show-caused Singh and subsequently suspended him. * In January 2023, the Hyderabad Police issued a fresh show-cause notice over a speech at a Hindu Janakrosh Morcha event in Mumbai for violating the terms of his release from jail. In February, the police registered a case against him for an alleged hate speech in Maharashtra’s Latur at an event to celebrate the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji. He was booked yet again in March for an alleged hate speech against the Muslim community in Maharashtra’s Shrirampur town. But with Singh threatening to contest the Telangana Assembly polls as an Independent if the BJP did not give him a ticket, the party’s central disciplinary committee revoked his suspension after “due consideration of his explanation”.
