Brinda Karat alleged Anurag Thakur made incendiary speech against anti-CAA protesters
A Delhi court on Wednesday dismissed a plea by CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat seeking a First Information Report (FIR) against Union Minister Anurag Thakur and his BJP colleague and MP Parvesh Verma for their alleged hate speech linked to protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja rejected the application saying the centre has to allow the FIR first under the law.
CPI(M) leaders Brinda Karat and KM Tewari had filed the complaint seeking a direction to the Delhi Police to file the FIR against Mr Thakur and Mr Verma.
"Admittedly, there is no previous sanction obtained by the complainants from the competent authority (central government) to prosecute the respondents for the offences alleged in the complaint. Hence… the complaint deserves to be dismissed being not tenable in the eyes of law. Accordingly, same stands dismissed," the court said.
Ms Karat told the court in her complaint: "Thakur and Verma had sought to incite people as a result of which three incidents of firing took place at two different protest sites in Delhi."
Ms Karat said she approached the court after her written complaints to the Police Commissioner and the head of Parliament Street police station did not respond to her.
The CPI(M) leader said she wrote to the Police Commissioner on January 29 and subsequently on 31, while she sent the letter to Parliament Street police station on February 2.
Ms Karat at a rally in Delhi's Rithala had alleged Mr Thakur on January 27 incited the crowd to raise an incendiary slogan - "shoot the traitors" - amid the protests against the CAA. She alleged Mr Verma on January 28 also made incendiary comments against anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh.