The cyber crime unit of Bengaluru police, on Wednesday, registered a zero FIR against Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh in connection with an alleged hate speech delivered by him in Bhilwara, Rajasthan.
On October 1, at an event in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara, Raja Singh stated that he was ashamed to be part of the Telangana Assembly and wished to ‘chase away and shoot down’ All India Majlis e Ittehad ul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi and seven other MLAs of the party.
“When I go the Telangana Assembly, on my right, Owaisi’s little bulldog (referring to Asaduddin Owaisi’s younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi) and his seven MLAs are seated. Sometimes I wish to chase them away and shoot them. But I am compelled to do otherwise,” Raja Singh had said.
The FIR was lodged based on a complaint filed by the Bengaluru-based Law and Policy Research Institute, which urgently called for action against the inflammatory hate speech targeting minorities and advocating violence.
The FIR states that he violated various sections of the IT Act. Bengaluru police are now collaborating with the Rajasthan police to conduct further investigations and take necessary actions in this matter.
Police have evoked under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 509 (uttering any word or making any gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 298 (intentionally hurting someone’s religious feelings), and 505(2) (the dissemination of a rumour or unsettling news about a religion) of the IPC against him.
The Goshamahal legislator Raja Singh was arrested last year in August for allegedly making objectionable remarks against Prophet Muhammad in a video posted on social media.
