"Islamophobia On The Rise In India": Plea In Bombay HC Seeks FIR Against CM Eknath Shinde, BJPs Nitesh Rane For Allegedly Hurting Religious Sentiments

A Bandra-resident has moved the Bombay High Court seeking directions to the Maharashtra Police to register a criminal case against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and BJP legislator Nitesh Rane, for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of the Muslim community and also for supporting or protecting the persons, who have been recklessly making objectionable comments against Prophet Mohammad.

The petitioner - Mohammad Wasi Sayed has taken exception to the objectionable comments made by self-styled godman Mahant Ramgiri Maharaj against Prophet Mohammad. The petitioner has highlighted the speech of CM Shinde, delivered on August 16, wherein he has allegedly asked the police not to touch any Hindu sants till he is the CM of the State.

"Such utterance is clearly an obstruction and a warning in the smooth and fair investigations," the petition states.

As regards Rane, the petition states that he is 'notorious' for criminalities. It says that Rane had also held a rally in Ahmednagar district in support of Ramgiri Maharaj and gave a provocative speech, calling Muslims 'homosexual' and also threatened that he will himself 'hunt every Muslim in mosques and kill them.'

The petition filed through advocate Ejaz Naqvi therefore seeks registration of First Information Report (FIR) against Rane and also Shinde, under the relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and the Information and Technology Act (IT Act) for creating a communal divide in the society and for threatening police from taking action against Ramgiri Maharaj. The petition also seeks a directive to the authorities stop the live telecast of the rallies or speeches made by Rane against the Muslims.

Further, the petition refers to the 'social media gang' comprising of Twitter/X users - Nupur Sharma (editor OpIndia), Raushan Sinha, Sanjay Dixit, Hitesh Shankar, Arpita Sen, advocate Shahzad Poonawal and Pandit Charudatta Pingale of the Hindu Janjagriti Samiti, which is only spreading 'Islamophobia' and mocking Muslims in the society to get economic benefit and political mileage from their respective handles.

Islamophobia, the petition states, in Indian context, is on the rise with the help of popular government, thereby causing death and violence due to riot or public lynchings, mostly the victims are Muslims or followers of Islam.

"Phobia against any community gets converted into mass hatred against the said community, after which the mob lynchings gets started and finally riots start against that particular community. Due to the personal ambition of the respondents, the poor citizens are likely to suffer due to a large scale hatred, hate mongering, communalism, Islamophobia and riots. Thus, the respondents must be made accountable to face the rule of law as soon as possible as delayed action in this record may lead to more and more physical mental losses," the petition contends. 

Among several prayers, the petition seeks deletion of all the Islamophobic content going viral on various social media platforms.

The matter is likely to be heard in due course.

Notably, a separate batch of petitions are already being dealt with by a bench led by Justice Revati Mohite-Dere which has sought action against Ramgiri Maharaj for his objectionable comment on Prophet Mohammad. The bench was recently informed that the objectionable videos, which have been circulated on social media have been deleted by the police. Further, the bench was informed that at least 58 FIRs have been lodged against Ramgiri Maharaj across the State and therefore, all the FIRs have now been transferred to Sinnar Police Station, as the alleged remarks were made in the said police station's jurisdiction.