On August 9, 2024, Citizens for Justice and Peace had sent a complaint to Superintendent of Police and Collector and District Magistrate of Nashik Maharashtra against religious preacher Kalicharan Maharaj for delivering a provocative speech at an event in Nashik, Maharashtra on May 28, 2024. As per a video uploaded by HindutvaWatch on May 30, 2024, Kalicharan Maharaj, alias Abhijit Dhananjay Sarag, delivered a speech making strange and offensive claims against the Muslim community to spread his divisive ideology.
The complaint states “Kalicharan has attempted to encourage violence against the Muslim community by distorting India’s past as well as the history of the beloved leaders of Maharashtra. Through his speech, he incited the crowd to provoke violence against Muslim community by peddling fake narratives in the name of ‘Jihad’, provided unsubstantiated numbers of crimes committed by Muslims against Hindu women to encourage mass violence, and created enmity between Hindu and Muslim communities. Additionally, he asked the incited crowd by demonising and slurring the Muslim community, and creating suspicions around the intention of the Muslim community to convert India into a Muslim nation.”
The complaint also provides the transcript of the speech made by Kalicharan, which included statements such as “Love Jihad, Land Jihad, Population Jihad are all its forms. Terrorism is also Jihad. Remove all terrorist organizations from all over the world. And look every terrorist is a Muslim. Why are all terrorists Muslim?” and “5 lakh women were gang-raped by Muslims on Hindu women. 50-100 people raped one woman. Half of the throats were cut and thrown away. This is what they call doing Halal.”
Highlighting the contentious extracts from the inflammatory speech delivered by Kalicharan, the complainant provided that this is not the first time that Kalicharan has delivered such a hate speech targeting Muslims and spreading disharmony in Maharashtra. pointing to the past incidents of hate speeches being delivered by Kalicharan across Maharashtra from February 2023 to March 2023, it was noted that in those speeches as well Kalicharan had been heard advocating for violence against Muslims and calling them “traitors and terrorist” and making ill-informed and controversial claims about the Quran.
The complaint states “His ignorant comments also clearly amount to spreading hatred and distrust against vulnerable and marginalized sections of our population, Muslims, besides being a grave threat to the peace, unity and integrity of India. Especially so, in view of the sensitive and hyper-charged atmosphere today wherein aggression is being unleashed, unchecked, with impunity, on sections of our population. The sheer vulgarity implied by the words used in the speech will make any normal person recoil in horror, but to the audience and colleagues of Kalicharan, these comments were to be applauded and whistled to!”
Given this background, the complainant highlighted that it is both urgent and essential that the speech given by Kalicharan is acted upon and criminal changes are levied on him for uttering such words that can cause problems for the safety and security of the minority community in our country, threaten and intimidate women and also threaten social harmony in general. With this, action under Section 196 (Promoting enmity between different groups), Section 197 (1) (words either spoken or written makes or publishes any imputation), Section 351 (1) (threatens another by any means injury to his person, reputation or property), Section 352 (Whoever intentionally insults in any manner) and Section 353 (Whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, false information, rumour, or report).
Additionally, the complainant urged the police to keep us abreast of developments and the action taken in this case, based on the relevant section, as this would go a long way in re-building faith and confidence in the rule of law in general and a police-citizen relationship in particular.
The complete complaint can be read below:
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