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Nadeem Khan created false narrative: Delhi police to high court
Delhi Police alleges activist Nadeem Khan used misleading info to depict a community as victims of oppression, prompting an FIR for promoting enmity.
Human rights activist Nadeem Khan, through “targeted dissemination of selective and misleading information”, attempted to create a narrative of portraying members of a “particular community” as victims of “systematic oppression” by the incumbent government, the Delhi Police has told the Delhi high court.
In an affidavit filed before the high court on December 5 opposing the petition filed by Khan, seeking quashing of a case of promoting enmity registered against him over his alleged speech during an exhibition in Hyderabad, the Delhi Police alleged that the national secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (ACPR) selectively highlighted incidents aligned with his narrative and deliberately omitted facts that could offer a balanced perspective to create an environment conducive to communal polarisation.
“That the petitioner, through the targeted dissemination of selective and misleading information related to specific past incidents, has sought to create a narrative portraying members of a particular community as victims of systematic oppression by the incumbent government. This selective portrayal is not only factually distorted but appears to be calculated to evoke feelings of victimisation and persecution within that community,” the affidavit said.
The high court is likely to consider the affidavit during the next hearing on December 11.
“Such actions suggest a deliberate attempt to provoke discontent and unrest, amounting to a larger conspiracy aimed at undermining communal harmony and public order,” the affidavit added.
The Delhi Police filed an FIR against Khan for promoting enmity between groups, and criminal conspiracy under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), after a video of his alleged speech surfaced on social media.
The FIR states that a sub-inspector, while on patrol duty, was informed by secret sources that a video was uploaded on the social media that was causing “great anger among local people and could lead to violence.”
In the petition, Khan and APCR asserted that the FIR did not include any offence punishable with more than three years of imprisonment. The plea also sought for a stay of the probe and protection from coercive action, on the ground that the FIR which was registered on an alleged secret information relating to uploading of a video on social media, did not disclose the commission of offence by him.
On December 3, the high court granted interim protection from arrest to Khan till December 6 saying the nation’s “harmony is not so fragile” that mere shouting or an exhibition can destroy its peace.
