Delhi Riots | HC Directs Police To Register FIR Against Kapil Mishra, Others For Inflammatory Speeches

Delhi High Court directed the Police to take 'conscious decision' with respect to lodging of FIRs against alleged hate speeches by three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in connection with the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) violence in the national capital.

A police personnel addresses the crowd in the presence of BJP leader Kapil Mishra, at Maujpur, on February 23, 2020 in New Delhi. (Getty Image)

New Delhi: Pulling up the Delhi Police for delaying in filing of FIR against politicians who delivered inflammatory and communal speeches, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked them to sit and watch all such videos of hate speeches made in the recent past. According to reports, the court directed the Police to take 'conscious decision' with respect to lodging of FIRs against alleged hate speeches by three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in connection with the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) violence and convey by Thursday. A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh took on record the assurance by special commissioner Praveer Ranjan that he will sit with the police commissioner today itself and view all video clips and take a conscious decision on lodging of FIRS. The three BJP leaders are -- Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma. The high court also issued notices to the parties concerned on the plea filed by the Centre seeking to be impleaded in the case. The matter will be heard further on Thursday. While wrapping solicitor Tushar Mehta, the court said, "Register FIRs against Kapil Mishra and others for inflammatory speeches if you want to save the city." The court also asked Mehta to communicate the development to Commissioner of Delhi Police. Arguing with the High Court, Mehta urged that it should wait for the response of the authorities concerned on the issue of lodging FIRs against alleged hate speeches by the political leaders. Mehta said any decision taken now may aggravate the situation. Delhi government's standing counsel Rahul Mehra contended however that there was no reason to not lodge the FIRs against the leaders. During the hearing, the court asked Mehta and Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime branch) Rajesh Deo if they had seen the video clip of BJP leader Kapil Mishra making alleged hate speeches.  While Mehta maintained that he does not watch television and has not seen those clips, Deo said he has watched the video of BJP leaders Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma, but has not of Mishra. On the submission made by the police officer, Justice Muralidhar remarked, "I am really amazed at the state of affairs of the Delhi Police", and asked the court staff to play Mishra's video clip in the courtroom. All three above mentioned BJP leaders are accused of making hate-filled communal and inflammatory remarks during the campaigning of recently conducted Delhi Assembly Elections and also against those protesting against the amended citizenship law.