New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday directed the city police to submit a status report on a complaint filed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat against BJP lawmakers Anurag Thakur and Pravesh Verma for alleged inflammatory remarks.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja will consider the report to be submitted by the Delhi Police on February 11.
An inflammatory slogan "desh ke gaddaron ko goli maaro s*** ko" was chanted at a public rally addressed by Anurag Thakur on January 27 in Delhi's Rithala area. Thakur allegedly had egged on his audience to respond to the slogan.
Pravesh Verma was reported as saying that mosques and graveyards had come up in over 500 government properties in the national capital, including hospitals and schools. He said that the land where these "illegal structures" have come up belongs to the Delhi Development Authority, Municipal Corporations of Delhi, Delhi Jal Board, and many other government agencies.
Thakur and Verma were then barred from campaigning by the Election Commission for 72 hours and 96 hours respectively in the run-up to the February 8 Delhi Assembly polls.
Karat filed the complaint against the duo on charges of outraging religious feelings, intending to provoke breach of trust and criminal intimidation.
"Direct that the investigation into the FIR be monitored by issuing necessary directions to the SHO concerned to investigate the matter fairly, properly and impartially, including the arrest of the accused in accordance with the law," Karat said in her application.
The application was filed under Section 156 (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure which empowers a magistrate to direct the police to conduct an investigation into any matter.