By Aiswarya Raj
Seeking that a “partisan” FIR against him be quashed, Uttarakhand resident ‘Mohammad’ Deepak Kumar has moved the state High Court, challenging the case and requesting a departmental inquiry against police officials who failed to act against hate crimes.
The petition, filed by Kumar and his friend Vijay Rawat, comes after they were booked based on the complaint of a Kotdwar resident.
On January 26, Kumar stood up to a group of men who were harassing a 70-year-old Muslim shopkeeper, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, to drop the word “Baba” from his shop’s name. During the confrontation, when asked his name, he told the crowd it was Mohammad Deepak. A video of the confrontation went viral, thrusting Deepak into the limelight but also bringing unwanted attention. On January 31, several members of the Bajrang Dal gathered to confront Deepak, but were restrained by the police.
Kumar had lodged a complaint against individuals who assembled in front of his gym, allegedly hurled abuses and delivered hate speeches. However, the police filed an FIR based on the complaint of a police officer against unknown accused. Kumar has stated in his petition that the police failed to take action despite evidence such as videos and details of the accused.
The petition, filed on March 13, also states that the FIR against him, based on a local resident’s complaint, has been lodged in a partisan manner by the Additional Superintendent of Police, Kotdwar, to “harass and victimise the petitioners for their act of intervening in a hate-driven incident to protect an elderly Muslim shopkeeper from communal intimidation”.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
