The Supreme Court has strongly reprimanded the Delhi Police in the hate speech case in December 2021 organized by the Hindu Yuva Vahini under the leadership of Sudarshan TV editor Suresh Chavhanke. Hearing the case on Friday (January 13), a division bench of Supreme Court Chief Justice (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha asked the investigating officers to submit the progress report within 2 weeks. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition by activist Tushar Gandhi.
While hearing the case, CJI DY Chandrachud asked Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for Delhi Police, ‘What are you guys doing so far in the investigation? The incident is of 19th December 2021, FIR was registered after 5 months… Why do you need 5 months time to register FIR’? To this the ASG said that the delay was not intentional as the police were verifying the matter.
On this, the CJI asked, “Then after May 2021, what steps have been taken so far? What have you done? How many people were arrested, what investigation was done? How many people inquired?” Reprimanding Delhi Police, the CJI said, “After May 4 it has been 8 months now. What is the progress of your investigation? First it took 5 months to register the FIR, now even after 8 months there is no progress…Tell me. On this, the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) has asked to file a reply after the guidelines.
On 19 December 2021, Hindu Yuva Vahini had organized a program in Delhi. Suresh Chavhanke, the editor of Sudarshan TV, was reportedly also among its organisers. There is an allegation against Suresh Chavhanke that he deliberately made a group swear to die in this program to make India a Hindu nation.
In recent years, cases related to hate speech have increased manifold. Most of the cases were registered against the leaders of the ruling BJP. If we look at the data of NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau), the cases of hate speech have increased by 500 percent in the last 7 years and the maximum number of cases were registered during this period.
Where 323 cases of hate speech were registered in the year 2014, 1804 cases were registered in 2020. According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), BJP leaders have the highest number of cases of hate speech among political parties. 27 MLAs and MPs of BJP have themselves accepted this fact in their affidavits.