A Satara resident has filed a prison writ petition within the Bombay Excessive Courtroom, demanding motion in opposition to Vikram Pawaskar, a senior chief of the Bharatiya Janata Celebration in Maharashtra, alleging that he performed a vital position in an assault on a mosque in Satara in September.
On Friday, the Bombay Excessive Courtroom directed the state public prosecutor to file a response to the writ petition in two weeks. The court docket has additionally directed the police to make sure safety to the petitioner and witnesses within the case.
On the night time of September 10, a mob of males torched autos, broken properties and attacked a mosque in Pusesavali, 40 kms from Satara district headquarters. The assault killed 30-year-old civil engineer Nurul Hassan Liyaqat, who was survived by a pregnant spouse and his mother and father.
The petition, which Scroll has seen, cited an eyewitness who claimed that Pawaskar, in a gathering held in Karad in August 2023, directed these current to focus on Muslims and deliberate an assault to break their autos and property. Three different eyewitnesses alleged that the rioters loudly proclaimed Pawaskar’s directions to focus on Muslim properties as they attacked the mosque on September 10.
Pawaskar is the state vice chairman of the BJP. Scroll emailed, despatched a textual content message and known as Pawaskar over the telephone to hunt his response to the order and the allegations. He didn’t reply.
The writ petition alleges that Pawaskar made no less than two provocative speeches in opposition to Muslims in public gatherings and rallies in Sangli, 120 kms from Satara in 2023. He known as for violence in opposition to Muslims and their financial boycott.
Within the rapid aftermath of the Satara riot, the police arrested 37 individuals for rioting and damaging properties.
The Satara police filed a chargesheet within the case in December. Pawaskar had not been named as an accused.
Over the previous 12 months, Maharashtra has witnessed no less than 4 incidents of communal violence in Satara, Akola, Kolhapur and Sambhaji Nagar, which was beforehand often called Aurangabad.
Previous cases of hate speech
The writ petition within the Bombay Excessive Courtroom states that Pawaskar spoke in opposition to the minority neighborhood on January 24, 2023, in Vita city, and once more on June 2 in Islampur – each in Sangli district.
Within the January rally, in response to the transcript of his speech within the petition, he known as for killing Muslims who enter right into a relationship with Hindu ladies and requested the gang to boycott those that should not have a tilak on their brow.
Within the June rally in Islampur, Pawaskar once more known as for a boycott of Muslims with the intention to safe a “Hindu Rashtra”, the transcript stated.
The primary FIR associated to the Vita speech was filed in Might, 4 months after the rally. The second FIR associated to his utterances within the Islampur rally was filed in June.
The petition additionally mentions the alleged position of Hindurao Pisal, one other BJP employee, in planning the riots together with Pawaskar. The petition additionally claims that social activists wrote letters to Satara superintendent Sameer Shaikh, warning him a couple of attainable riot.
What the Satara case FIR says
The Satara police filed a chargesheet within the case associated to the assault on the Pusesavali mosque in December.
The FIR initially named 28 accused. 9 extra names had been added later. Amongst them, Rahul Kadam and Shriram Joshi had been accused of hitting civil engineer Hassan on his head, resulting in accidents that brought about his loss of life.
Based on a supplementary assertion recorded by the Satara police on September 13, citing a complainant, on August 21, BJP chief Pawaskar allegedly held a gathering on the home of one other accused, Sangram Dadaso Mali, in Karad, 28 kms from Pusesavali.
A supplementary assertion data extra data in an investigation.
No less than 27 of these accused of rioting on September 10 had been current for this assembly, the assertion stated. Scroll has seen a replica of the assertion.
The assertion states that Pawaskar directed these within the assembly to focus on Muslims and deliberate an assault to break autos and property.
Twenty days later, following a social media publish about Maratha ruler Shivaji and god Ram and goddess Sita that went viral, a mob attacked the mosque and broken autos and properties in Pusesavali village.
The police added Part 120B of the Indian Penal Code, which attracts punishment from two years until as much as life imprisonment for prison conspiracy, after the assertion associated to Pawaskar was added within the FIR.
Pawaskar’s identify, nonetheless, doesn’t seem within the remaining chargesheet or within the listing of accused. When contacted, Satara superintendent Sameer Shaikh declined to remark. A police official informed Scroll that Pawaskar’s identify has not been formally added to the principle FIR.
The riot
On September 10, a screenshot of feedback on a social media publish on god Ram, goddess Sita and one other on Shivaji went viral. Each the feedback on the publish had been abusive in nature.
Based on Satara police, two Muslim males in Pusesavali village had been accused of posting the remark. Of them, one was known as for questioning and requested to submit his telephone on the native police station. The second was not within the village that day.
Their households informed Scroll the 2 males did not publish the content material on social media. The police has requested Fb to supply extra information however is but to obtain a response until date, a police officer informed Scroll. “Investigation on this matter is on,” a police official stated.
On September 10, hours after the screenshot went viral, a big mob, with most of their faces coated and quantity plates of motorbikes blackened, entered the village and attacked the mosque the place six Tablighi Jamaat members from a close-by village had been holding non secular discussions with native residents after the night time prayers.
The petition states that the mob chanted “Jai Shri Ram”, as per witnesses, and one accused, Kadam, referred to Pawaskar’s directions to break properties as he attacked these within the mosque. Kadam can also be named as a major accused within the homicide of Hassan.
One other witness, the petition noticed, stated he heard Kadam say that Pawaskar had requested them to kill Muslims within the mosque. In whole, no less than three witnesses from the mosque have said that Pawaskar’s identify was taken by the mob through the assault.
The court docket has directed the Satara police and the Sangli police to submit responses on the FIRs associated to speeches made by Pawaskar in Sangli and on the chargesheet the place his identify stays lacking.
Additionally learn: A Muslim teenager’s Instagram account was hacked weeks earlier than Satara erupted in violence
