By Scroll Staff
The use of terms like “Rohingyas” and “Bangladeshis” is not disparaging towards Muslims living in India, the Mumbai Police told the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, reported Live Law.
The police were justifying their reasons for refusing to file a first information report against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitesh Rane and independent MLA Geeta Jain, who supports BJP, under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code in specific cases, for allegedly outraging religious sentiments with speeches they made in January.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Shyam Chandak was hearing a batch of petitions seeking action against Rane, Jain and Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh, for propagating hate speech against Muslims during public addresses in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar, Mankhurd, Malwani areas, and Mira-Bhayandar’s Kashimira locality, in January.
The speeches were made against the backdrop of communal violence in Mira Road near Mumbai.
The petitioners highlighted parts of a speech that Rane had made in Ghatkopar, in which he used words like “Rohingyas” and “Bangladeshis”, among other derogatory expressions, against the Muslim community.
Rohingyas are a Muslim-majority ethnic group from Myanmar. The Rohingya are the victims of a state-sponsored ethnic-cleansing campaign in their home country. Several thousands of them have fled to India and Bangladesh to escape death and violence.
On Tuesday, public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar told the court that section 295A of the Indian Penal Code can only be invoked against Rane for a speech he made in Mankhurd, where he made statements targeting the Muslim community in India, reported The Indian Express.
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