The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of a court in Haridwar, Mukesh Chandra Arya, rejected the bail of the head priest of Dasna Devi temple, Yati Narsinghanand, on Wednesday.
The Hindutva-hatemonger Narsinghanand was arrested on January 15 for making objectional comments against women following which he was booked for hate speech and abusing journalists and sent to 14-day judicial custody, reported The Times Of India.
Narsinganand’s counsel Uttam Singh Chauhan said that the maximum punishment for the offences under charges booked is not more than seven years and are bailable.
He has been booked under sections 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feeling), 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (insult intended to provoke breach of peace), and 153A ((promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) of the Indian Penal Code.
Adheer Kaushik, who runs Akhand Parashuram Akhada and is pursuing the case said that the petition would be filed in the high court if the CJM turns down Narsinghanand’s bail application.
Haridwar’s CJM Arya had also rejected the bail plea of Jitendra Narayan Tyagi aka Waseem Rizvi. Tyagi is also accused in the Haridwar hate speech case and has been booked under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups and acts prejudicial to harmony) and 298 (deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person) of the IPC.
The Dharam Sansad was held from December 17 to 19 in Haridwar, where several Hindutva leaders delivered hate speeches against religious minorities and called for a genocide against Muslims.
Besides Narsinghanad and Tyagi, Dharamdas, Sadhvi Annapurna, and Sindhu Sagar are also among those booked for delivering hate speeches at the conclave.
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