The special sessions court for MP/MLAs at Nampally metropolitan courts in Hyderabad on Wednesday acquitted All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) floor leader in the Telangana state legislative assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi in two hate speech cases pertaining to Nirmal and Nizamabad districts.
The court said the prosecution had failed to produce proper evidence for the same. It also directed Akbaruddin not to make any controversial speeches in future, keeping in view the national integrity.
Akbaruddin, the younger brother of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, allegedly made the inflammatory comments at Bhainsa in Nirmal district on December 22, 2012 – that he would balance the Hindu-Muslim population if the police forces were kept away for just 15 minutes.
He made similar hate speeches at Nizamabad earlier on December 8, 2012, where he allegedly used inflammatory and derogatory language against a community.
The police registered criminal cases against Junior Owaisi under Section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups of religion), 153-B (imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of Indian Penal Code, besides Section 156 (3) of Criminal Procedure Code.
Owaisi was arrested in connection with cases registered against him for his alleged hate speeches delivered at Nizamabad and Nirmal in December 2012 and subsequently released on bail. He was in the jail for 40 days.
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) probed the Nizamabad case and filed the charge-sheet in 2016 while the Nirmal district police, who probed the case, also submitted the charge-sheet in the same year.
As many as 41 witnesses were examined in the Nizamabad case while 33 people were examined in the Nirmal case.
There are allegations that the TRS government has indirectly helped the acquittal of the AIMIM leader, as the police have deliberately not produced proper evidences before the court. Naturally, it has diluted the case.
In fact, Owaisi made a similar comment in Karimnagar district in 2019, recalling his 15-day statement of Nirmal.
Then Karimnagar Police Commissioner V B Kamalasan Reddy issued a statement giving clean chit to Owaisi stating that there were no offensive, hostile or inciting comments constituting hatred in the MIM leader’s speech.
He said the legal experts who examined the videos of Owaisi speech pointing out that there was nothing offensive in the comments and hence, no cases against would be registered against him.