New Delhi: The Supreme Court granted bail to Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, formerly known as Waseem Rizvi, the first person to be arrested in connection with the hate speeches made at the Haridwar Dharma Sansad held in December last year.
A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath granted three-month interim bail to Tyagi, a former chairman of the Shia Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh, on medical grounds, the Indian Express reported.
The bench passed the bail order while hearing an appeal made by Tyagi against the Uttarakhand high court decision to deny him bail in March this year.
During a previous hearing of the case, the top court had issued notice to the state government, seeking its opinion in the matter. During the hearing, the bench had opined that events such as the Dharma Sansad were “spoiling the atmosphere” of the region.
Earlier, the Uttarakhand government told the top court that communal harmony must be maintained and that Tyagi should be asked to desist from making any incendiary statements.
As such, the bench, in its order, told Tyagi not to make any inflammatory speeches or statements, which is similar to the conditions imposed by a Haridwar court when it granted bail to a fellow accused in the Dharma Sansad case – Yati Narsinghanand.
Granting Narsinghanand bail in February this year, the Haridwar court had told the controversial religious figure not to deliver any speeches which could disrupt communal harmony and restrained him from becoming part of any group or event with an aim to create discord among different communities..
However, Narsinghanand has since violated these bail conditions on two occasions – during a Hindu Mahapanchayat in Delhi’s Burari, where five journalists were allegedly assaulted, and again at a similar event in Himachal Pradesh’s Una, where he again called for Hindus to take up arms against Muslims.
Tyagi was arrested on January 13 this year, in the presence of Narsinghanand, who told the arresting officers, “You will all die,” in a video which had gone viral at the time.
Tyagi and Narsinghanand were arrested on the basis of a first information report (FIR) filed by the Uttarakhand police on January 2 this year, in which over 10 people affiliated with the event were named.
The FIR was registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of any person). The Wire
