Dharam Sansad hate speech: Court acquits Jitendra Tyagi
text_fields
Haridwar: In a case of hate speech, a court here acquitted Jitendra Tyagi, who was formerly known as Wasim Rizvi. Tyagi, notorious for his controversial statements, was acquitted by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Avinash Kumar Srivastava on April 16 in the case of the 2021 Dharam Sansad hate speech on the grounds of “benefit of the doubt”, Siasat reported.
The case is linked to a three-day event of Dharam Sansad that took the stage in December 2021 at Haridwar’s Niketan Ashram, where multiple individuals delivered inflammatory hate speeches, and they were accused of the same. Videos of the event gave rise to sharp criticism in the public sphere. Those who condemned the event included the Akhil Bhartiya Akhada Parishad, the apex body of Hindu monastic orders. The organization said steadfastly that Sanatan Dharma promotes peace and condemns violence against other religions.
Jitendra Tyagi is a former chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board. He was converted to Hinduism in December 2021 and faced multiple charges under various sections of IPC. On January 1, 2022, an FIR was registered against him at Kotwali police station in Haridwar based on a complaint. He was arrested on January 13, 2022, near the Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand border but released on bail four months later.
The CJM court observed that there was no sufficient evidence to conclusively prove Tyagi's involvement in the alleged offences.
