By Sofi Ahsan
The Uttarakhand High Court on Friday restrained gym owner Deepak Kumar (“Mohammad” Deepak) from commenting on social media regarding cases filed over an incident from January where he confronted right-wing activists seen harassing a Muslim shopkeeper over the name of his shop.
Justice Rakesh Thapliyal reasoned that social media commentary would only hamper the ongoing police investigation in the matter. The Bench took critical note of the State’s claim that Kumar has not been cooperating with the investigation and has, instead, been “busy on social media”.
“The petitioners are directed to cooperate with the investigation and not to indulge unnecessarily on social media platforms so that investigation is not affected. He is citizen of this country and he should abide by the law. Being citizen of India, he has to cooperate with investigation by hoping and trust that investigation will be conducted in fair and transparent manner,” the Court said in the order.
The Court refused to allow Kumar’s plea to quash the criminal case lodged against Kumar on a complaint by right-wing activists. Instead, it recorded the State Police’s assurance that it will follow the Supreme Court’s guidelines on safeguards to be followed while investigating an offence that carries a prison term of up to seven years.The Court also directed the police to go ahead with the investigation.
“Certainly, the petitioner has a right to challenge the impugned FIR since he is facing investigation, but as pointed out by the State, all the offences are punishable with less than seven year sentence and therefore investigating agency is under legal obligation to follow Supreme Court guidelines…
The writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the investigating agency to go on with the investigation but while conducting the investigation, the Investigating Officer shall follow the guidelines formulated by the apex court in the case of Arnesh Kumar and will issue a notice to the persons concerned…,” the Court ordered.
The matter is tied to a January 26 incident, where Kumar objected to right-wing activists insisting that an elderly Muslim shopkeeper remove the word “Baba” from his shop since the term had a Hindu connotation. When asked what his name was, Kumar responded that he was “Mohammad” Deepak though his actual name is Deepak Kumar.Kumar recently approached the High Court with a plea to quash a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him on a complaint by the right-wing activists he confronted, among other prayers.
This story was originally published in barandbench.com. Read the full story here.
