Zeenews Bureau
Hyderabad: Taking suo motu action, Andhra Pradesh Police on Thursday filed two FIRs against Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi for allegedly making a "hate speech" against a particular community.
The FIRs were registered at Adilabad and Nizamabad districts last night and notices were dispatched to Owaisi seeking his appearance before the Investigating Officers (IOs) to record his statement, Director General of Police (DGP) V Dinesh Reddy said.
Despite the chorus demanding action against him, the police had not moved against the MIM MLA and leader of the party in Andhra Pradesh Assembly. Akbaruddin’s elder brother Asaduddin Owaisi is the Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad.
However, the DGP denied that there was delay in filing the cases and said they were following certain procedures because Owaisi was a people's representative and the police wanted to be sure and gather concrete evidence before moving forward.
The legislator had allegedly used inflammatory and derogatory language against a particular community during his public speeches last month.
While the Nizamabad speech was made on December 08, Akbaruddin made the hate speech at Nirmal town in Adilabad on December 24.
"There may be slight delay in view of transcribing the speeches due to the language (Urdu) factor," the DGP said.
The police have booked Akaruddin under Section 153(A) of the IPC - creating enmity between different communities.
The MIM leader, in his almost two-hour long speech on Dec 24 at Nirmal, allegedly tried to instigate the crowd by calling for a "test of strength" against a community.
The MLA from Chandrayangutta has been booked under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs). He has also been booked under IPC Section 121 (waging or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India).
A local court today had directed the police to investigate a complaint filed by a city-based businessman, S Venkatesh Goud, against the MIM legislator.
The 4th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) directed Osmania University Police to investigate the complaint and file a report before it on January 28.
Goud had filed a complaint before the court alleging that the Chandrayangutta legislator had given "highly provocative and derogatory" speech on a particular community, which was telecast on a local television channel on December 8 and 9.
Social activist Shabnam Hashmi has also lodged a complaint at Parliament Street Police Station in New Delhi against the MIM leader for allegedly making derogatory remarks about a particular community.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy told reporters that the law would take its own course in Akbaruddin's case. He said the government had no role in the matter and it was for the police to take action as per the law.
He said it had come to the notice of the government that Akbaruddin made provocative speeches in Adilabad and Nizamabad districts.
The MIM leader, whose party snapped ties with ruling Congress party in November last year, was addressing public meetings aimed at what was called exposing communal attitude of Kiran Kumar Reddy's Congress government.
With PTI inputs
First Published: Thursday, January 03, 2013, 09:18