Haridwar hate speeches: Uttarakhand HC rejects Tyagi’s bail plea

He was the first person to be arrested in the case on January 13 days after the videos of calls for violence against Muslims went viral on social media and provoked outrage

Published on: Mar 9, 2022, 14:13:35 IST

By Neeraj Santoshi

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Dehradun: The Uttarakhand high court has rejected the bail plea of Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, formerly known as Wasim Rizvi, in connection with the hate speeches at a Dharma Sansad in Haridwar in December.

Tyagi’s lawyer, Lalit Sharma, said a single bench of Justice Ravindra Maithani rejected the plea on Tuesday. Tyagi was the first person to be arrested in the case on January 13 days after the videos of calls for violence against Muslims at the event went viral on social media and provoked outrage. The arrest came after the Supreme Court sought a response from the state government on the action taken in the case.

On December 23, police registered the first case in the matter and initially only named Tyagi as the accused. Later, Pooja Shakun Pandey alias Annapurna Maa, Dharamdas Maharaj, general secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, Swami Narsinghanand, and Sagar Sindhu Maharaj were also named as accused.

A five-member Special Investigation Team was formed to probe the hate speeches on January 2. On February 1, another case was filed against Tyagi for hurting religious sentiments by delivering a hate speech and passing derogatory remarks against Muslims at a book launch in Haridwar on November 21.

An additional district and sessions court in Haridwar on February 15 granted bail to Narsinghanand in a case related to alleged derogatory statements against Muslim women. On February 7, Narsinghanand got bail in another case filed against him in the hate speech case. He was arrested on January 14 while protesting against Tyagi’s arrest.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More