Author:
Publication: The Times of India
(Web edition)
Date: February 16, 2001
Chargesheet against former Shahi
Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Abdullah Bukhari in a sedition case for allegedly
making anti-national speech will be filed soon as investigation has been
completed, the Delhi High Court was informed on Friday.
Delhi government counsel Mukta Gupta
told a bench headed by Justice Usha Mehra that opinion of additional solicitor
general (ASG) K K Sud had already been obtained in this regard after police
completed the probe.
Sud was also present in the court
during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking investigation
into the sedition cases against Abdullah Bukhari and his son and present
Imam Ahmed Bukhari for their alleged anti-national speeches last year.
The bench, comprising Justice K
Ramamoorthy disposed of the PIL filed by an NGO, Society for Securing Justice
after the statement of the government counsel.
The government counsel on previous
dates of hearing had stated that a case under Section 124-A (Sedition)
had been registered against Abdullah Bukhari with the Kamla Market police
station for his alleged anti-national speech in Ram Leela grounds on April
21 last year.
Similarly an FIR under the same
section was registered against Ahmed Bukhari with the Jama Masjid police
station, the government counsel had said.
The PIL alleged that Abdullah Bukhari
in his speech had declared himself as an ISI agent and dared the government
to arrest him.
The police had registered the cases
following filing of the PIL, which alleged that Abdullah Bukhari was promoting
disharmony in the society and attempted to instigate a section to wage
war against the country.
The petitioner had sought registration
of a case under Section 121 (waging or attempting to wage war against the
country), Section 124 (sedition), Section 153 (provocation for causing
riots) and Section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on
grounds of religion) against Abdullah Bukhari.
Society alleged that The Imam in
his speech had attacked the policy of secularism and asserted that he would
go to Ayodhya to lay the foundation of Babri Masjid.
Bukhari in his recent interview
to a website again had "proclaimed" himself as an ISI agent and dared the
government to arrest him, Srivastava alleged.
"Such statements are clearly made
to incite the sentiments of a section of people and pose a grave danger
to our democracy," he said. (PTI)
