The Delhi police has registered an FIR against two Twitter handles of a journalist and a news portal for allegedly inciting hatred between communities after they claimed manhandling of scribes during the controversial ’Hindu Mahapanchayat' event, officials said.
The tweets had insinuated that the journalists were targeted for their religion which could have vitiated the atmosphere, they said.
This is the fourth FIR registered in connection with the event and no arrest has been made so far, the officials said. Controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand was booked along with other speakers for alleged hate speeches at the event, held without police permission in north Delhi's Burari ground on Sunday. Two other FIRs were lodged on complaints of some other journalists that they were assaulted.
The Twitter handles belongs to journalist Meer Faisal @meerfaisal01, who works for a news portal, and another news portal Article 14 (@Article14live), the police said, adding an investigation is currently underway.
In a tweet posted on Sunday, the journalist had alleged that he along with a fellow journalist were beaten up because of their "Muslim identity by Hindu mob".
The official Twitter handle of news portal Article 14 had also posted a tweet the same day alleging that "five journalists, four of them Muslim, one on assignment for the said news portal, were taken to the Mukherji Nagar police station after a mob at the event discovered their religion, attacked them and deleted videos". The police, however, had denied any detention.
When contacted, the editor of the portal said he is yet to see a copy of the FIR and refused to comment.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Usha Rangnani said, "An FIR under section 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered in Mukherjee Nagar police station against some Twitter handles for tweets in circulation having content which could incite enmity, hatred and ill-will between two communal groups and investigation is taken up."
The police said that they are scanning the purported videos of the event which featured the speakers who allegedly gave "hate speeches" at the event.
The police said they had denied permission for the event but the organisers still went ahead and around 700-800 people were present at the venue.
According to police, some of the speakers, including Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, the head priest of the Dasna Devi temple, and Suresh Chavhanke, chief editor of Sudarshan News, allegedly uttered words promoting disharmony, feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between two communities.
The mahapanchayat was organised by Preet Singh of Save India Foundation. This is the same group that had earlier held a similar controversial event at Jantar Mantar in the national capital, where anti-Muslim slogans were raised.
Singh was arrested by the Delhi police for making a hate speech at the Jantar Mantar event.
Several other right-wing Hindu leaders also attended the Sunday event.
Narsinghanand is currently on bail in connection with the Haridwar hate speech case. He was accused of making provocative speeches against Muslims at the Dharma Sansad, which was held in the holy town between December 17 and 19 last year.
