All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday took to social media to demand an apology from Congress party after he was acquitted in the 2005 Muthangi Masjid demolition case.
Owaisi tweeted, “Will Congi leaders have courtesy to apologise they where in power 2005 false case reg,they allowed masjid demolition w/o due process of law” (sic)
Will Congi leaders have courtesy to apologise they where in power 2005 false case reg,they allowed masjid demolition w/o due process of law https://t.co/XG0SANECYH
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) December 29, 2016
Owaisi, his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi and 21 others were booked under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 147 (rioting) and 186 (obstructing public servant).
On Thursday, a court in Sangareddy acquitted Owaisi along with MLAs Akbaruddin, Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan and Mohammed Moazam Khan.
In 2005, the revenue department officials under the then Congress government of undivided Andhra Pradesh had demolished three mosques and one shrine to widen a highway. However, the officials were met with protest by the local Muslim population and AIMIM leaders when the demolition process reached the fourth mosque.
Owaisi and others were accused of preventing government officials from demolishing a mosque on the Hyderabad-Mumbai highway at Muthangi village near Patancheru town in Medak district.
The scuffle had then turned into a day-long rioting and protests.
The then chief minister of undivided Andhra, late Rajshekhar Reddy, had ordered a probe into the matter and the AIMIM leaders were also booked at the same time.
The senior Owaisi, also an MP, had surrendered before the court in 2013 before being sent to jail after he failed to get respite from the court for cancellation of the non-bailable warrant issued against him.
(With additional inputs from ANI)
