Gurugram: A week after he had incited violence against Muslims at a public meeting in Gurugram's Pataudi area, the teenager who had fired at anti-CAA protesters outside the Jamia Millia Islamia here last year, was on Monday evening arrested by the Gurugram Police, who had, a day ago, booked him for hate speech under relevant sections of the IPC. The Jamia shooter, as he came to be known, was booked for his incendiary remarks against the Muslim community at the Pataudi Hindu Mahapanchayat on July 4.
While the man, who was 17 in January, 2020, was arrested by the Delhi Police for firing at protesters outside JMI and sent to a juvenile correctional facility, he walked out months later.
The Gurugram Police's arrest comes a day after the FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint from a private business owner of the Jamalpur village in Gurgaon. In the FIR, the complainant has said, "On 04.07.2021 a mahapanchayat was organised at the Ramlila Ground, Pataudi, where a man gave quite a provocative speech which could have caused riots and ruined the law and order situation, and this speech was inciting religious sentiments."
Subsequently, the FIR was registered under sections 153-A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth) and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting its religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code.
Among the slew of threats to members of the Muslim community, the teenager exhorted people to abduct Muslim women and also said that if he can march 100 kilometres to Jamia in support of the CAA, then Pataudi is not far for him. In addition, the man, who by his own admission to police in Gurugram is 19 now, had also boasted of his actions outside Jamia last year.
Not only the teenager but a large number of speakers who addressed the huge gathering of participants had made several provocative speeches that would create disharmony among the communities. Significantly, BJP leader and spokesperson Suraj Pal Amu was also at the event and made incendiary remarks.
Despite having the power to take suo-motu cognizance of the hate speech, the police waited for a formal complaint to register an FIR. This is the first action in connection with the Hindu mahapanchayat.
"On the basis of our investigation we have arrested the teenage accused after we had registered an FIR against him. Our investigations in this case are still being undertaken," said Varun Singla DCP (Manesar).
For more than two months there is an uneasy calm in the hinterlands of South Haryana especially in several villages of Nuh and Gurugram. This uneasy calm comes in the backdrop of the controversial brutal murder of Nuh resident Asif Khan. Khan's family said this was a hate crime and the family of the accused maintain that their sons were being falsely implicated.