Rejecting the petition, the court ruled that there will be one single probe by the CID although different FIRs have been registered for the alleged offence.
By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh High Court has rejected Majlis-e-Itehadul Muslimeen Assembly floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi plea of quashing multiple FIRs registered against him in different police stations for his alleged hate speeches.
Akbaruddin Owaisi was caught in controversy for his alleged hate speech at Nirmal town and Nizamabad town given in December 2012. Those speeches which were widely circulated through social media created national hue and cry, that later resulted in Akbaruddin’s arrest.
MIM leader who is out on bail moved High Court after numerous cases started getting registered against him in different courts and police stations across country. In his writ petition Mr. Owaisi argued that there can’t be multiple cases for a single crime, and issuing of notice from different police stations and courts where offence was not committed in their jurisdiction violates of his fundamental rights.
Mr. Owaisi in his petition primarily mentioned a case registered against him by Osmania University police station in Hyderabad for speeches given in some other districts. In his plea, Akbaruddin Owaisi asked the court to direct police to not register any more cases against him and quash the existing cases register outside Nirmal and Nizamabad.
Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the AP High Court declined to concede to MIM leader’s plea, and rejected providing any blanket order to the police. Rejecting the petition, the court ruled that there will be one single probe although different FIRs have been registered for the alleged offence. In his judgment Justice Ramesh recollected the standard laid down in 155 similar other cases, he also gave reference of different court orders on actress Khushboo and late painter MF Hussain pleas against whom same kind of multiple FIRs were registered for one alleged crime.
But keeping judicial norms aside court gave some relief to Akbaruddin Owaisi by directing the police to transfer all the FIRs to Crime Investigation Department which will carry out a single investigation of all the cases registered against him for the alleged hate speech. Now MIM leader doesn’t require appearing in every single police station where FIR is registered against him for his alleged hate speeches.
High court order also states that there is a need for legislation to protect fundamental rights of citizens under Article 21, who are likely to face consequences of several FIRs register against them for the same alleged offence.