[Dharam Sansad Hate Speech case] Supreme Court grants bail to Jitendra Tyagi

Read Time: 06 minutes

Synopsis

In May, Tyagi was granted bail on Medical grounds for two and a half months. When this period came to an end, Tyagi was asked to surrender.

The Supreme Court today granted bail to Jitendra Tyagi aka Wasim Rizvi in a matter pertaining to investigation into the alleged hate speech at Haridwar Dharam Sansad that happened in December last year.

Court noted that co-accused in the case was already out on bail and the chargesheet was filed after investigation.

Last month, the top court ordered Tyagi, to surrender on or before September 2, 2022 in light of the end of the 3 months of medical bail which was granted to him.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi & BV Nagarathna had then stated that they will consider the regular bail of Tyagi on September 9 after he surrenders.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra today informed Court that Tyagi had surrendered as per its previous orders.

On May 17, a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath granted bail to Tyagi and ordered that the matter be listed after two and a half months.

In December last year, an FIR was lodged by Gulbahar Khan against Tyagi alleging that he made derogatory comments on Prophet Mohammed and Quran during the Dharam Sansad event.

Tyagi recently converted to Hindu Religion in Shiv Shakti Temple, Dasna, District Ghaziabad according to Sanatan Dharam on December 6, 2021. He was invited to “Dharam Sansad” event organised from December 17-19, 2021.

Further, it was alleged that on January 2, 2022, Tyagi released a video abusing Islam and the Prophet.

In January this year, a local court at Haridwar had denied bail to Tyagi for his alleged offensive and provocative comments against the Muslim community.

The Uttarakhand High Court in March denied bail to Tyagi in the 'Haridwar Dharam Sansad case' while observing that Tyagi's speech at the religious congregations at Haridwar was indeed a hate speech. 

The order read, "Undoubtedly, the transcript reveals that there are huge derogatory remarks against a particular religion; against Prophet. The Prophet has been abused; it intends to wound the religious feelings of persons belonging to a particular religion; it intends to wage war. It promotes enmity. It is a hate speech."

Accordingly,  an SLP was filed by Tyagi challenging the Uttarakhand High Court's order denying his bail Application, he had contended that only a few isolated words of the speech cannot be taken note of in light of the FIR registered under Sections 153A (Promoting enmity between groups), 298 (deliberately hurting religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 by Uttarakhand Police. 

"....the basis of the speech attributed to the Petitioner was a desire for reform and a few isolated words of the speech cannot be read to undermine the fact that the contents of the speech were to demonstrate the need for reforms...", the SLP stated.

Case Title: Jitender Narayan Tyagi vs. State of Uttarakhand & Anr.