Granting conditional bail, Telangana HC has prohibited Singh from holding rallies, delivering provocative speeches, speaking to media and others.
Suspended BJP MLA Raja Singh in Mumbai on 29 January. (Twitter)
Even as suspended BJP MLA T Raja Singh led the annual Ram Navami Shobha Yatra in Hyderabad, the Greater Mumbai police on Thursday, 30 March, booked him for delivering an allegedly provocative speech.
The speech in question was delivered in Mumbai on 29 January at a rally organised by the right-wing outfit Hindu Sakal Samaj.
Hundreds had participated in the rally, where a call was given for a law against “love and land jihad”, religious conversion, and “population control”.
A day earlier, hearing a contempt petition, the Supreme Court had given the Maharashtra government four weeks to explain why it had failed to act against those delivering hate speeches and targeting a community at rallies across the state.
Raja Singh was granted conditional bail by the Telangana High Court on 9 November, which prohibited him from holding rallies, delivering provocative speeches against any religion, or speaking to the media in the state. He was held for making blasphemous comments about the prophet.
The suspended MLA has, since then, largely held rallies in Maharashtra, most of them organised by the Hindu Sakal Samaj, a loose association of several right wing organisations.
While seeking police’s approval for their January, the organisers Hindu Sakal Samaj had informed them that the march was about demanding strict laws against those who abuse women and hinder their safety and dignity.
“The case has been booked based on an individual’s complaint. There are parts in the whole speech which are provocative and can create division between two communities, and promote enmity. So, after verifying that the speech was delivered by MLA Raja Singh, he was booked,” SHO Dadar police station Mahesh Narayan Mugutrao told South First.
Raja Singh addressing gathering at the Mumbai rally. (Twitter)
The Mumbai cops have booked Raja Singh under IPC section 153-A — promoting enmity between two communities and disrupting religious harmony.
While adding that a notice under 41 CrPC will be issued to Singh next, the SHO did not comment on whether Singh will be allowed to hold another rally in Mumbai or not.
On 30 January, the Hyderabad City police had also issued a second show-cause notice to Raja Singh for his provocative Mumbai speech.
Meanwhile, in the last three months, Singh has addressed multiple rallies in Maharashtra’s Solapur, Amravati, Latur, Karad, Pune and Mumbai.
Known for making provocative speeches, Singh was booked on 27 February by Latur police for a speech, under IPC Sections 295-A and 153.
By some estimates, he has over a hundred cases registered against him — many of them for hate speeches.
The rally, where Singh spoke, was from Shivaji Park to the Maharashtra State Labor Welfare Board in Dadar.
A top view of the rowd at Hindu Sakal Samaj’s rally in Mumbai on 29 January. (Twitter)
Demanding that the government draft a law in regard to “love and land jihad”, Singh alleged that there was a conspiracy to trap Hindu girls and convert them.
“After the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was banned in Kerala, it started the project of love jihad. They are getting foreign funding for this,” claimed the suspended BJP MLA.
He also appealed to people present there to ensure that no business was done with Muslim traders.
“Women, learn self-defence and ensure that the gym instructor is not a Muslim,” he said.
Singh also urged people to check if their Ola, Uber, and Rapido driver was Muslim or a tilakdhari (the wearer of a mark on the forehead, signifying one is Hindu).
Asking people to boycott products with halal tags, the Goshamahal MLA said, “Whether a commodity is of ₹1 or ₹1 lakh, buy it from a Hindu. If the word halal is mentioned in any product, we demand that it not be purchased. Even (Baba) Ramdev should remove the word from the products he sells.”
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court observed that hate speech “is happening because the state is impotent, state is powerless, state doesn’t act in time”, and such speech will stop “the moment politics and religion are segregated”.
Justice KM Joseph, heading a bench that also comprised Justice BV Nagarathna, asked where the state was when all this was happening.
The bench was hearing a peitition was filed by a multimedia journalist from Kerala, Shaheen Abdullah, seeking contempt proceedings against Maharashtra police for not stopping inflammatory speeches at rallies organised by some Hindu outfits despite the court’s direction.
According to Justice Joseph, the major problem was when politicians make use of religion for power.
He told the advocate appearing for the Hindu Sakal Samaj: “Most important thing is dignity. Some statements are made like ‘go to Pakistan’… they are actually the ones who had chosen this country. They are your brothers and sisters.”
In a Supreme Court’ order on 21 October last year, it had observed that failure to act against the people involved in making hate speeches would be treated as contempt of the apex court.
The court has now posted the matter for hearing on 28 April.
