As many as 76 top Indian lawyers have written an extraordinary letter to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana asking his urgent intervention in the chilling call by Hindutva terrorists for ethnic cleansing of Muslims.
Referring to the recent gathering of Hindutva terrorists in Uttarakhand and Delhi, the lawyers said that an ‘urgent judicial intervention is required to prevent such events that seem to have become the order of the day.’
Prominent among those lawyers are Prashant Bhushan, Dushyant Dave, Salman Khurshid, Vrinda Grover and former Patna High Court judge Anjana Prakash.
The letter said that genocidal calls issued by Hindutva terrorists in Haridwar and Delhi posed a ‘grave threat not just to the unity and integrity of our country but also endanger the lives of millions of Muslim citizens.”
The letter comes days after the Uttarakhand Police refused to make any arrests in connection with the gathering of Hindu leaders, who called for the genocide of 20 lakh Muslims in India. Uttarakhand’s Director-General of Police Ashok Kumar had sensationally defended his decision to not invoke the UAPA against Hindutva terrorists saying that their genocidal calls had not led to anyone’s deaths.
“We have invoked both Section (i) and (ii) of Section 153 A IPC in the FIR. We have to go by law, cannot invoke UAPA as the event did not lead to any violence or killing. The investigation will reveal further details,” Kumar had told The Hindu newspaper.
The letter written by prominent lawyers made a reference to police inaction as they informed CJI Ramana how ‘no effective steps have been taken under the provisions of 153, 153A, 153B, 295A, 504, 506, 120B, 34 of IPC in respect of the earlier hate speeches.’
“Thus, urgent judicial intervention is required to prevent such events that seem to have become the order of the day,” they said.
They concluded, “We are writing to your Lordship hoping for prompt action in your capacity as the head of the judicial wing of the State and knowing your Lordship’s commitment to both the independence of Judiciary as also the constitutional values that are fundamental to the functioning of a multicultural nation such as ours.
Hindutva terrorists named in the letter to CJI included Yati Narsinghanand Giri, Sagar Sindhu Maharaj, Dharamdas Maharaj, Premanand Maharaj, Sadhvi Annapoorna alias Pooja Shakun Pandey, Swami Anand Swaroop, Ashwani Upadhyay, Suresh Chavhanke and Swami Prabodhanand Giri.
In the gathering in Haridwar, several Hindu leaders, notorious for propagating terrorism in the name of their religion, had made objectionable statements targeting Indian Muslims.
