Seven complaints, to various police jurisdictions from Ratnagiri to Saswad, including Kamthi city (Nagpur), Jalgaon, Navapur (Nandurbar), Dongri (Thane), Saswad (Pune), Hupri and Ratnagiri (Kolhapur) have been filed by the Citizens for Justice and Peace in the past months against serial offenders Kajal Hindustani, T. Raja Singh, and Nitesh Rane from the controversial organisations like Sakal Hindu Samaj and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti. Four of these, against Hindustani, Singh, and Rane were filed before the jurisdictional police stations this week. Three previous complaints related to hate speech and events in January-February 2024 were filed on February 23 this year. CJP has invoked recent orders of the Supreme Court in the Shaheen Abdullah Case (WP (C) 940/2022) to approach jurisdictional officers and district magistrates (DMs) with these complaints while also ensuring that the Director General of Police is cognisant of these citizens’ actions.
March 2024 was blotted with hate speeches in Maharashtra taking forward a trend that has been marked since the change in the state government in June 2022. This has given the state the dubious distinction of entertaining a spate of such hate events that have on occasion’s seriously disturbed social peace. The January 2024 incidents at Mira Road-Bhayander are the most recent examples (See here, here, and here).
This week, by April 3, 2024, we have dispatched four of the seven complaints to the Superintendents of Police (SPs) and DMs, urging prompt action, beginning with registration of complaints and investigation in these cases. Evidence of the videos of these controversial speeches have also been provided. In these complaints, CJP has urged registration of offences under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity), 505 (statements conducing public mischief), and in some cases under Section 506 (criminal intimidation).
The hate speeches that have been delivered by Kajal Hindustani, Nitesh Rane, and T. Raja Singh -all associated formally or informally with the ruling dispensation in the state – not only slur and denigrate the Muslim community by spreading Islamophobia, but they also promote enmity between different communities, propagate false conspiracy theories like “love jihad and land jihad” and most critically contain the threaten of physical violence.
Most crucially, we have invoked the binding judicial orders of the Supreme Court in the Shaheen Abdullah vs Union of Indian (Writ Petition (Civil) 940/2022) which mandate the police to suo moto register cases in incidents of hate speeches, as per law. Besides, several executive orders by the Director General of Police (DGP) Maharashtra have also been relied on in these complaints. In coming months, CJP will also monitor hate speech and address the issue before the Election Commission of India (ECI) since the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is in place.
Details of the complaints filed
Kajal Hindustani
A Gujarat resident, Kajal Singhala, better known as Kajal Hindustani, has been involved in numerous cases of hate speech, and was earlier arrested by the Gujarat police in April 2023 for delivering incendiary anti-Muslim speech at an event organized by Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Una.
On March 5 at Hindu Janakroash Morcha rally organised by Sakal Hindu Samaj in Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, she delivered a hate speech targeting Muslims, and accusing them of pursuing Ghazwa-e-Hind (battle to take over India and make it into Islamic nation). During her speech, she recalled that there are four major challenges before the country, i.e., love jihad, land encroachment, religious conversion, and drugs. Charging the religious minority of encroachment, she said, “They systematically plan all of these. They find a place, arrange 4 pieces of bricks around it, put a green cloth over it, and make it mazaar. Gradually it will take the form of Dargah, and then, when the government would talk about demolishing it, they will engage in stone pelting against the government authorities and police.”
In this case, we sent our complaint to Dhananjay Kulkarni (Superintendent of Police, Ratnagiri) and M. Devender Singh (Collector, Ratnagiri) asking them to invoke IPC Sections 153A, and 505 (1) and (2).
In another video that emerged of her at Nagpur event organised by the same organisation on February 2 this year, she asked Hindus to socially boycott Muslims, arguing that any relation between a Hindu and a Muslim is impossible, as the latter wants to commit Ghazwa-e-Hind. In this case, we sent our complaint to Kamlakar Gaikwad (Superintendent of Police, Nagpur) and Vipin Itankar (Collector, Nagpur) asking them to invoke IPC Sections 153A, and 505 (1) and (2).
Similarly, on February 6, 2024 in a speech delivered at Shri. Shivaji High school in Navapur (Nandurbar), she urged that “Only buy groceries from Hindu brothers, only give jobs to Hindu brothers. If your Hindu brother is selling a Tomato at an expensive price than others, then buy less quantity but buy only from your Hindu brothers”, once again accusing the Muslim community of overbreeding, Ghazwa-e-Hind, and terrorism. In this case, we sent our complaint to Vinayak Mahamuni (Sub Divisional Officer, Nandurbar) and Manisha Khatri (Collector, Nandurbar) asking them to invoke IPC Sections 153A, 505 (1) and (2).
This theme was further repeated during her speech on January 31, 2024 at an event in Jalgaon. In this case, we sent our complaint to M Rajkumar (Superintendent of Police, Jalgaon) and Ayush Prasad (Collector, Jalgaon) asking them to invoke IPC Sections 153A, and 505 (1) and (2).
Nitesh Rane
Rane is BJP MLA from Kankavli assembly constituency, and another regular face when it comes to delivering inflammatory speeches. On 27 February he made an incendiary speech in Dongri, Thane, accusing the residents of land jihad and threatened to evict them. He said he will burn them in a generator, terming the residents as illegal Bangladeshis. Additionally, he warned the police to take law and order in his own hand if the police did not comply with his directives.
Cautioning the police, he said, “If you want to maintain law and order situation under control, then you must stop all this illegal activity. It is the police’s responsibility. We have told you and come today. Otherwise, we will come tomorrow and get into the buildings and send all the Bangladeshis to Bangladesh. That’s why we have come to give a final warning…Where these Bangladeshi and Rohingya are coming from, nobody knows…We will not let any Bangladeshis take our rightful land. Now under ‘land jihad’, if anyone tries to evict Hindus, then they must know we are all standing here like a wall for our Hindu people.”
In this case, we sent our complaint to Sadanand Mane (Senior Police Inspector, Dongri Police Station) and Ashok Shingare (Collector, Thane) asking them to invoke IPC Sections 153A, 505 (1) and (2), and 506. Incidentally, in the month of January 2024, he had been booked by the Mumbai police under IPC Section 153A for delivering the anti-Muslim inflammatory speech during his Solapur rally.
T. Raja Singh
On January 31 this year, Raja Singh, who is an MLA from Goshamahal assembly constituency in Telangana and facing more than 40 criminal charges, delivered a fiery speech in Saswad, Pune, inciting the crowd to provoke violence against Muslim community by peddling fake narratives in the name of Love Jihad, and threatened them to take over their religious places in Mathura and Kashi even as he boasted about the demolition of Babri Masjid. He can be heard in the video saying, “Wherever you Jihadis have demolished our temples and built mosques over it, I challenge you, not one of them will remain”. An excerpt from transcribed speech reads, “If you find any Love Jihadi, cow slaughterer, or someone indulging in religious conversion, then report about that person to the government or police in the first place, if they don’t act, then respond in the manner of Chatrapati Shivaji.” Furthermore, he encouraged arms training for Hindus in order to defend themselves against Muslim threat, and asked the crowd to get ready for “Hindu Rashtra”.
In this case, we sent our complaint to Pankaj Deshmukh (Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural) and Suhas Diwase (Collector, Pune) asking them to invoke IPC Sections 153A, and 505 (1) and (2).
In another speech made on January 30, 2024 in Hupri, Kolhapur, at Hindu Janjagruti Samiti event, he addressed the crowd and said that “If you want to shoot the laundons (apparent slurred reference is to Muslim youth) then join Bajrang Dal.” Accusing Muslims of religious conversion and overbreeding, he remarked, “Earlier we had one Afzal, but today we can see the illegitimate children of Afzal Khan on every nook and corner of the streets. You can see them everywhere.”
In this case, we sent our complaint to Mahendra Pandit (Superintendent of Police, Kolhapur) and Amol Yedge (Collector, Kolhapur) asking them to invoke IPC Sections 153A, and 505 (1) and (2).
Thus, it is evident from the analysis of such hate speeches that they often scripted with same concepts and conspiracy theories, repeated time and again, in one or the other form, whose only purpose seems to demonise religious minorities and create fear psychosis in the mind of ordinary citizens, especially Hindus.
Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) has Hate Watch as a clear programme wherein it monitors hate speeches made through different media and complaints to relevant authorities. As a civil liberties movement that has been at the forefront of defending citizens’ liberties, including freedom of speech and expression. At the same time, it consistently tries to ensure a distinction between hate (harm-inciting) speech and controversial (free) speech.
Hence apart from regular complaints to the National Broadcasting Statutory Digital Authority (NBDSA), on ground hate events are agitated before the jurisdictional police stations. Hence, pursuant to Supreme Court orders, CJP has actively pursued police authorities and has written several complaints to police and local administration since January this year against hate speeches delivered in Maharashtra by the fringe elements. In all our complaints we have tagged relevant Superintendent of Police (SP) or Senior Police Inspector of the concerned Police Station, and Collector of the district in which the reported incident of hate speech took place. Additionally, DGP of the state of Maharashtra, Rashmi Shukla, has been marked in the complaints despatched physically and through email.
The state of Maharashtra has been in the national news over the last few months as the growing instances of hate speech delivered in political rallies by the extremist leaders came to the limelight. On March 20 last year the issue grabbed the headlines as The Indian Express reported, “4 months, 50 rallies in Maharashtra, one theme: ‘Love jihad’, ‘land jihad’ and economic boycott”. As the Lok Sabha elections will begin from April 19, such incidents are most likely to increase further, which might not only attract penalties under various provisions of Indian Penal Code, but can also violate the Model Code of Conduct and the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
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