After the Mira Road police denied Telangana BJP MLA, Raja Singh, permission to hold a rally, the Bombay High Court on Friday, February 23, directed the Mira Road police to permit the rally, however, imposed terms and conditions for him to address the meet.
Infamous for his hate speeches, reflected by a record of FIRs against him, Raja Singh is keen on holding a rally on Mira Road to commemorate the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on Sunday, February 25. The police have been asked to record the entire rally and speeches delivered during it.
The matter was taken to the High Court after the police twice declined the application of the organisers for a permit to hold and address the rally.
Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Shivkumar G Dige heard Naresh Ramu Nile’s plea to cancel orders from Mira Road and Kashmira Road police and sought permission to carry out the procession with Singh addressing the Shivaji followers.
Singh’s advocate argued that despite several hate speech cases against Raja Singh, no FIR has been registered against him for inflammatory speeches since the Supreme Court’s order in the hate speeches matter.
Singh has been booked on various occasions for his hateful speech in Telangana and Maharashtra.
According to Kulkarni, the Aurangabad bench recently overturned an authorities’ order that had denied permission for a rally in Chopda city in Jalgaon district. The court ordered the police to grant permission by imposing necessary conditions.
He further claimed that the BJP leader had given an undertaking of no hate speech, and he had complied with it during the rally held on February 21.
Hiten Venegaonkar, the State Government’s Public Prosecutor, opposed the rally in Mira Road due to possible violence between the two sects. The police’s refusal was justified as a similar incident occurred during the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22.
The petitioner argued that the location where the rally is scheduled to take place is almost 1.9 km away from the site of the previous violent incident. The BJP leader has agreed to comply with all the terms and conditions set by the authorities, including any changes to the procession route.
The starting point (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Statue road) and end point (Silver Park SK Stone) should not be disturbed by the police, as all arrangements are already made, advocate Kulkarni added, to which the police said they would only decide the route.
The bench noted that it was ‘conscious’ of several cases being registered against one of the main speakers T Raja Singh Thakur. However, it referred to the February 20 order of the Aurangabad bench granting him permission for a rally in Jalgaon.
Noting that not a single case was registered against Singh after the apex court’s direction to the police to file suo moto complaints in cases of hate speech, the HC directed the police to permit the rally with conditions.
Raja Singh’s counsel assured that the BJP legislator would follow all restrictions and would not deliver hate speeches during the rally.
