The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to Haridwar hate speech case accused Jitendra Narayan Tyagi on the condition that “he should not make any statement in the media with regard to the pending case”.
A bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and BV Nagarathna said, “No purpose is left in this case to keep him in custody when charges have already been framed.” In March, a charge sheet was filed, and the trial court framed charges against Tyagi and others in May.
On January 13, Uttarakhand Police arrested Tyagi and Yati Narsinghanand, the organiser of the Dharma Sansad held in Haridwar from December 17 to 19. Both were accused of promoting enmity between religions and hurting religious sentiments after videos of their speeches at the event surfaced on social media.
After the Uttarakhand high court refused him bail on March 8, Tyagi moved the Supreme Court citing his failing health and the fact that other co-accused Narsinghanand was already out on bail in February. He was lodged in Roshnabad jail in Haridwar.
Tyagi was granted a three-month medical bail by the top court on May 17. On August 29, the Court directed him to surrender to argue his bail plea. The Uttarakhand government opposed the grant of bail as it pointed out that three different offences were registered against Tyagi concerning hate speech.
{{/usCountry}}Tyagi was granted a three-month medical bail by the top court on May 17. On August 29, the Court directed him to surrender to argue his bail plea. The Uttarakhand government opposed the grant of bail as it pointed out that three different offences were registered against Tyagi concerning hate speech.
{{/usCountry}}On a separate petition moved by Tyagi to club all the FIRs against him, the top court issued notice and sought the response of the Uttarakhand government.
Appearing for Tyagi, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, along with advocate Pulkit Srivastava, gave a list of the cases pending against the petitioner and prayed to the Court for a direction to club the FIRs related to hate speech.
Uttarakhand’s deputy advocate general, Jatinder Kumar Sethi, told the court that the three offences registered against Tyagi pertained to different incidents and under different offences, which cannot be clubbed together. In the Haridwar hate speech case, he was charged with offences of promoting enmity between religious groups (Section 153A) and uttering words aimed to wound the religious feelings of any person (Section 298) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The case against him and others had been lodged on the complaint of Nadeem Ali, a resident of Jwalapur at the Haridwar Kotwali on January 2. Later, Tyagi also released a video containing insinuations against Prophet Muhammed and the Muslim community.
Advocate Mahmood Pracha, appearing for the complainant, told the Court that the cases against Tyagi are different and need to be tried separately.
In May, the Supreme Court said that the statements made by Tyagi were not in good taste. “This is something, which is spoiling the whole atmosphere,” the top court had observed.
Tyagi is a former chairman of the UP Shia Wakf Board and was known as Waseem Rizvi. He converted to Hinduism in December last year.