Tripura Police have booked four Supreme Court lawyers under UAPA and several sections of the Indian Penal code for spreading communal hatred through social media posts. A case has been registered against four Supreme Court lawyers and they have been asked by the Tripura Police to appear before investigation by November 10.
Reportedly, prior to the notice, the lawyers had addressed a press conference which was streamed through Facebook live, in order to release a so-called fact-finding report titled “Humanity under Attack in Tripura #MuslimsLivesMatter”. The lawyers alleged that 12 masjids, 9 shops and 3 homes belonging to Muslims were attacked during the recent protests by Hindu groups against attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh.
However, the Tripura govt has denied these allegations. The govt maintains that while some minor scuffles did take place, there was no attack on any mosque in Tripura, as being alleged by many. DIG (Southern Range) G K Rao in a video message on Wednesday said, ‘Some mischievous incidents are happening in the state since the last few days. There was some minor loss of property and some incidents of disturbance occurred. Tripura Police registered 11 cases including 4 in North Tripura, 3 in West Tripura, one in Gomati district and three cases in Sepahijala district.’
It is clarified that law and order situation is absolutely normal in the state. Below is message by DIG (Southern Range). #Tripurahttps://t.co/axK0cUhtW5
— Tripura Police (@Tripura_Police) November 3, 2021
Lawyers who were sent notices from the Tripura Police include Supreme Court lawyer Ehtesham Hashmi, Lawyers for Democracy’s convener lawyer Amit Srivastava, NCHRO national secretary Ansar Indori and PUCL member Mukesh Kumar.
Manik Das, the West Tripura district superintendent of police informed PTI, “A group of Supreme Court lawyers visited Tripura on Tuesday last and after their visit we noticed that several posts were made in social media expressing their discontent regarding the recent communal incidents. Police has registered a case and wants to know if the posts were made by them or were fake posts.” Manik Das also said that the lawyers were asked to appear before police for questioning by November 10.
On November 3, the case against the lawyers was filed at West Agartala police station under several sections of IPC including 153 (a) and (b) related to promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion, race etc, 469 (forgery), 504 (intentional insult, provocation), 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), in addition to the section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The ‘fact-finding team’ of the lawyers had demanded the constitution of an inquiry committee headed by a retired High Court judge to investigate the alleged attack on Muslims, compensation to victims, reparation of damaged religious places etc. They had also demanded strict action against people and organizations who made provocative and false posts on social media to incite people.
Earlier, the Tripura Police responded to viral videos and news related to the alleged vandalism of a mosque during a protest march on Tuesday and categorically denied any such incident taking place and informed that FIR against the viral fake posts on social media platforms had been lodged.
