No FIR Against Anurag Thakur Without Centre’s Consent: Delhi Court

Union Finance Minster Anurag Thakur

(Photo: PTI)

A plea by CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, seeking a First Information Report (FIR) against Union Home Minister Anurag Thakur and MP Pravesh Verma for allegedly making hate speech about anti-CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh, was dismissed by a Delhi court on Wednesday, 26 August.

According to NDTV, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja said that, under the law, the Centre has to allow the FIR first.

“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   

CPI(M) leaders Brinda Karat and KM Tewari had filed the complaint, reported NDTV.

Karat, in the complaint, had said:

“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.”   

She also said that she had gone to the court after she did not get any response to her complaints from the Police Commissioner, filed on 29 January, and the head of Parliament Street police station, filed on 2 February.

The complainants pointed out that during a rally in Rithala in Delhi, Thakur raised chants of “Desh ke gaddaro ko, goli maaro saalon ko” (Shoot the traitors) with reference to those taking part in peaceful protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, reported Bar and Bench.

(With inputs from NDTV and Bar and Bench).