In her complaint, Hashmi has written “There are several levels of these interactions with the police and crime branch from cajoling to become inactive and not campaign for Congress candidate. I was told that level of threats and likely consequences, if they don’t agree, depend upon the status of the person whom they have called. Some have been threatened with dire consequences of cases being filed against them or reopening of old cases of petty crime and turning them into big ones.”

It is essential to note that Hashmi has also specifically provided details of the meetings that took place between police and crime branch officers and present and former BJP MLAs. She wrote “Meetings were held at Karnawati Club with community leaders where crime branch, SOG officers and police were present along with a former and present BJP MLA and they were strictly told to ensure that candidates should be put up and nominations must be filed. Money is being offered openly.”

Furthermore, Hashmi provided that chairmen and secretaries of various cooperative bodies including cooperative banks, milk cooperatives, APMC, Purchase Unions, GSC bank, etc., have been instructed to campaign for Home Minister Amit Shah. Along with this, she highlighted how college students were being forced to attend Shah’s road show, warning them of being given failing grades in their internal exams if they skip the said show.

Hashmi has also alleged regarding the plans in place to disrupt polling and elections by stating “Anti-social elements have also been called and instructed to disrupt voting on the Election Day and to ensure no rickshaws are available in the afternoon.”

With this, Hashmi has urged the ECI to take cognizance of the serious allegations being made by her and the residents of Gujarat and “ensure that extra forces are deployed in Gandhi Nagar Lok Sabha constituency to ensure that people can vote peacefully on May 7, and anti-social elements, local police and ruling party does not create a situation like they did in 2019.”

The full complaint can be read here:

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The post Human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi flags malpractices prior to Gujarat polling day, alleges misuse of power and assertion of undue influence by state apparatus appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Passing the quashing order of the cognizance taken by the trial court and the proceedings that had emancipated from the same, the high court bench of Justice Navin Chawla clarified that the respondent has been permitted by the court a fresh complaint if necessary. As per a report in LiveLaw, the bench had stated “However, it is made clear that the respondent shall be at liberty to file a fresh complaint, if so advised. In case such complaint is filed, the same would be considered in accordance with law.”

It is essential to note that judgment in the said case had been reserved on February 2, 2024.

Brief information about the case:

As per the FIR filed by the Delhi Police against Hashmi was registered in 2020 under Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Allegations raised against her were that in a video that had surfaced on Hashmi’s social media account on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), she could be seen walking with banners against the CAA along with some other individuals. As per the FIR, Hashmi was found holding the banner.

Arguments raised in the court:

Advocates Soutik Banerjee and Devika Tulsiani, representing Hashmi in the said case, submitted that in terms of Section 195 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), cognizance for an offence under Section 188 of IPC can be only be taken on a complaint made in writing by the concerned Public Servant or some other Public Servant to whom he is administratively subordinate. It was further submitted by the counsels that cognizance could not be taken of the Final Report.

On the other hand, Additional Public Prosecutor Aman Usman, representing the State, had argued that the learned Metropolitan Magistrate could have taken cognizance not only of the Final Report but also of the document attached thereto.

Observations made by the Court:

Based on the submissions of by both the parties, Justice Chawla perused Section 195(1) of CrPC, Justice Chawla said that a court can take cognizance of any offence punishable under Section 188 of the IPC only on the complaint in writing of the Public Servant concerned or some other Public Servant to whom he is administratively subordinate.

As per the LiveLaw report, the bench stated “The present petition presents similar facts as the above cases. In the present case also, the FIR was registered alleging violation of the Prohibitory Order…issued under Section 144 of the CrPC by the ACP Dwarka. However, on completion of investigation, instead of filing a complaint in terms of Section 195 CrPC, the Final Report was filed before the learned Metropolitan Magistrate, and the learned Metropolitan Magistrate vide order dated 08.10.2021, took cognizance of this Final Report.”

The bench further added that “In the present case, there is no challenge to the registration of FIR. The challenge is to the order passed by the learned Metropolitan Magistrate taking cognizance of the Final Report, which is not a complaint under Section 195 CrPC.”

With this, the bench of Justice Chawla quashed the order of the trial court and permitted the respondents to file a fresh case following the procedure established by law if required.

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The post Anti-CAA protest: Delhi High Court quashes trial court’s order taking cognizance of FIR against Shabnam Hashmi for holding banner appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Though they were unhurt, this incident highlights the level of intolerance right wing groups harbour against human rights activists and the depths to which these supremacists would sink in order to further their divisive agenda.

The post Activists singing Vande Matram called ‘anti-national’, attacked in Bihar! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Hashmi's Facebook Page

Here is her open letter to the National Commission for Minorities released today:

5th Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan
Khan Market
New Delhi-110003
June 27, 2017

Dear Commission members,

I return today the National Minority Rights Award conferred on me in 2008 by the National Commission for Minorities.

I am returning it in the memory of the innumerable innocent victims lynched by marauding mobs. Mob Lynching of Muslims and Islamophobia have taken over India. Even before the community can mourn its dead, the next incident takes place. There is an atmosphere of fear and terror. Under the present Government, the marginalization of minority groups has become the norm.

The design of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra, which began decades ago with calling Muslims dirty, having too many children and being illiterate moved on to excluding them from residential spaces, targeting them as terrorists, has now reached its pinnacle where all public spaces and all means of livelihood are becoming unsafe for the Muslim community.  Similar to Hitler’s Germany, Muslims are being projected as the biggest enemy of the state and the people of the country.  There is legitimization of the communal ideology by the State and the media,  has led to acceptance of prejudices and stereotyping without questioning them in popular consciousness, deep infiltration of hate in the minds and hearts of ordinary people and apathy on the part of a large section of the society especially ‘educated’ middle classes.

While UP Dharm Jagran Samiti’s head Rajeshwar Singh declares “Our target is to make India a Hindu Rashtra by 2021. The Muslims and Christians don’t have any right to stay here. So they would either be converted to Hinduism or forced to run away from here” , the Hindu Mahasabha, announces the launch of its "Islam-free India" campaign.  Sadhvi Deva Thakur gives a call to declare emergency and sterilise Muslims and Christians to control their population and Sadhvi Sarawati gives the call to hang the ‘beef eaters’ and attack all secular people. 150 Hindu outfits openly hold a 4 day convention in Goa calling for turning India into a Hindu Rashtra by 2023.

With over 4500 communities and over 400 living languages, dietary restrictions are forced on the people. The cow, and animal, has become a major tool to spread hatred, attack and kill innocent people.

While a man was lynched to death by a mob near Delhi on a rumour that he had cow meat in his house, the whole state machinery was busy in getting the meat tested, instead of nabbing the culprits.  A 16 year old child is lynched and killed on a train for being a Muslim or a techie killed for having a beard, two young boys killed and hanged from trees in Jharkhand, a cattle trader paraded naked in Chittorgarh, a man assaulted in Anand, Gujarat for transporting calves, a 50 years old man lynched for transporting cows, or two boys lynched on suspicion of stealing cows, a boy dragged against SUV and later his head smashed against water tanker, then ran over under the SUV in full public view, another burnt alive in Nandurbar, an activist beaten to death allegedly by staffers of municipality in Rajasthan, for objecting to their photographing women defecating in the open. The Hindu Talibans are killing with impunity.

There is not only a deafening silence from this government but it also openly connives in encouraging the mob lynching and attacks on minorities. Lynching has become the unaccountable way of outsourcing state violence to strike fear in minds of minorities.

The National Commission for Minorities should have played an active part in ensuring the dignity, security and constitutional rights of the minority communities. Instead of providing any security and standing with the prosecuted minorities, the Chairperson based on false accusations and concocted stories by the police has given highly questionable and condemnable statement asking Muslims to go to Pakistan towing the line of the non-state actors who have been unleashed on the minorities by the present government.
Indian democracy, secularism, pluralism and diversity have their roots in centuries of intermingling of different cultures, philosophical debates, and the legacy of the long struggle for India’s Independence. Democracy and secular thought are built and safeguarded consciously. The divisive politics, interference of religion in the state has to be confronted at every step.

National Commission for Minorities and the present Government has failed in providing even a semblance of dignity and security to the minority communities.
I return the National Minority Rights award given by the National Commission for Minorities, which has lost all its credibility, in protest against consistent attacks and killings of the members of the minority communities and total inaction, apathy and tacit support to the violent gangs by the government.

Sincerely,
Shabnam Hashmi

The post Shabnam Hashmi Returns Minority Rights Award: NCM Has Lost Complete Credibility appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Two young Muslim girls, one of them minor, narrated the chilling account of their gang rape in Delhi yesterday, an incident that took place on the night of August 24-25, a week ago.  Last Wednesday (August 24), four-five persons, described of height and good build in the FIR, broke into their after midnight in Dingerheri village in Mewat district of Haryana, looted valuables and killed the couple Ibrahim and his wife Rashidan when they resisted the attack.

Minutes later, they broke into their relatives' home, about 200 metres away. There they tied another couple with the bed in the veranda and brutally beat them up. Then three of the robbers took turns to rape a minor girl and her married cousin who were sleeping in the room. The injured couple are admitted in a local hospital. The police have lodged FIR on the complaint of the gang-rape victims. The account as narrated in the First Information Report number 0247/2016 dated August 25, 2016 is horrific:

“I work as a domestic worker. I had come for the Bakri Eid festival from my in-laws place to the home of my parents. On the late night of August 24, I was sleeping with my family in the house. My uncle (chacha, name withheld), was sleeping outside in the courtyard and I was sleeping next to m cousin and her two children in the inside room. We heard shouts from outside. Suddenly four to fve men, two in baniyans and shorts, the others in pant shirt entered the room, They snatched away our dupatta(s) and tied up my uncle to the cot he was sleeping on. Then they beat him mercilessly. After this, they came into the inner room and then both my cousin sister and I were raped three times by three men. They kept demanding to know money eand jewellery was; one of them has a katta in their hand.They then searched the boxes etc in the house; emptied the barrel with grains, and then locked five of us into the room inside. They stole the motor cycle also. They were assaulting us between 12 midnight and 3 a.m. The men were speaking in ‘Jat Bhasha’ and were tall and board shouldered..

Somehow, my young relative (name withheld) reached to my grandfather sleeping outside near the tube well and informed him of the incident after which we were rescued.” Sabrangindia has a copy of the FIR.

Yesterday, the victims, escorted by human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi where they narrated their ordeal. The press conference was largely ignored by the national press. As soon as they began to narrate their ordeal, they broke into tears.
 

The post Mewat Gang-Rape Victim Breaks Down While Narrating Horrific Incident appeared first on SabrangIndia.