His SC plea challenged an Allahabad High Court order accepting the state government’s refusal to prosecute Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a 2007 hate speech case.
The case against him was lodged at Rajghat police station on June 4. Speaking to Sabrang India, Parvez Parvaz’s lawyer Advocate Farman Naqvi said, “On June 4, the survivor had filed an FIR against a Jumman Mia and a man named Parvez. Please note, his last name Parvaz was not mentioned. She claimed that Jumman Mia called her to a secluded spot where both Jumman and Parvez raped her. Based on this an FIR was filed under section 376 (c) for gang rape.” An investigation followed and the Investigation officer filed a closure report on July 25, 2018. “The Investigating Officer filed a closure report stating the case was false. He based his conclusion on the fact that the scene of crime was not a secluded spot and that there were a few shops there, but the shopkeepers did not see anything. Moreover, the injury report did not conclude that a rape had taken place,” says Adv Naqvi. However, after this the survivor met UP CM Adityanath following which the police started looking at the case with renewed vigour. “The SSP passed an order rejecting the previous IO’s investigation and the case was handed over to a new IO Shalini Singh.” The petition challenging the FIR was filed on Monday, and on Tuesday Shalini Singh arrested Parvez Parvaz.
“The Gorakhpur police arrested Parvez late Tuesday night from Kotwali area of the city and produced him today before a local court, which sent him to jail,” said Additional SP, City, Vinay Kumar Singh.
When the petition seeking a stay on the arrests of Jumman and Parvaz was heard on Wednesday before a bench comprising of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice D K Singh, the court had stayed the arrest of Jumman. As Parvaz is in Judicial custody his legal team will now apply for his bail as that is the legal remedy available.
The entire order may be read here.
A brief background of Parvaz’s case against UP CM Adityanath
“Communal clashes broke out in Gorakhpur and adjoining districts after a Hindu youth was killed in a clash during a Muharram procession. As per an FIR registered, Adityanath allegedly delivered a provocative speech calling out for revenge against the minority community in retaliation for the death of the youth. The police initially refused to register an FIR and lodged it only after the HC intervened,” reported The Hindu.
Last May, after the BJP came to power in UP, the state government refused sanction to prosecute Adityanath, who by then had become the CM, on grounds that the prime evidence in the form of a CD had allegedly been tampered with.
“However, In February, 2018, the HC, too, dismissed the petition saying that it did not find any procedural error in the conduct of the investigation and remitted the matter to the sessions court in Gorakhpur to ‘pass an appropriate order in accordance with law’. The HC order was challenged in the Supreme Court, which in September 2018 refused to disturb the high court order. Now, as per the high court order, the sessions court has sent out notices to both the parties to appear before it on October 20,” reported Times of India.