Delhi Court Issues Notice On Plea Seeking FIR Against Mahua Moitra For Tweet Over Ganga Iftar Party Arrests

A Delhi Court on Wednesday issued notice on a plea seeking registration of FIR against TMC leader Mahua Moitra for her tweet against the recent arrest of 14 Muslim men accused of organizing an Iftar party and consuming non-veg items on a boat in the Ganga in Varanasi and throwing bones and food waste into the river.

Additional Sessions Judge Sonu Agnihotri of Saket Courts issued notice on the plea filed by a final year law student challenging a magisterial court order dismissing his complaint.

The Court sought response of Moitra and listed the matter for further proceedings on May 16.

The complainant, Ram Pravesh Dubey, had sought registration of an FIR under offences of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) dealing with promoting enmity, outraging religious feelings and public mischief.

The controversy stems from a post made by Moitra on March 19 on X (formerly Twitter), in the backdrop of the arrests in Varanasi.

In the post, Moitra questioned whether a Hindu corpse could be categorised as vegetarian or non-vegetarian, adding that no one could be arrested for eating chicken on the Ganges until that question was answered.

Duney alleged that the statement was offensive to Hindu religious sentiments and was intended to incite communal disharmony.

Although Dubey is pursuing his law from National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, he claims that he was pursuing an internship and residing in a paying guest accommodation in Delhi when the cause of action took place.

He has challenged the order passed by JMFC on March 30 refusing to order FIR against Moitra, observing that no complaint to the police was annexed with the complaint and that there was no material to show intent to insult religious beliefs or cause communal disharmony.

Challenging the dismissal, the revision petition contends that the Magistrate committed “patent errors of law” in rejecting the complaint at the threshold.

It is argued that under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), a Magistrate can take cognisance of a complaint directly, and there is no mandatory requirement to first approach the police.

The plea states that the reach of the statement with 656,200 views and 2,100 retweets, is itself material evidence going to the 'likely to disturb public tranquillity' and 'likely to cause fear or alarm.'

The 14 accused arrested in the case were Azad Ali, Aamir Kaifi, Danish Saifi, Mohd. Ahmed, Nehal Afridi, Mahfooz Alam, Mohd. Anas, Mohd. Awwal, Mohd. Tehseem, Mohd. Ahmed alias Raja, Mohd. Noor Ismail, Mohd. Tauseef Ahmed, Mohd. Faizan, and Mohd. Sameer.

All of them have been denied bail by a sessions court in Varanasi. The iftar party was allegedly held on March 15, during which the 14 accused purportedly consumed chicken biryani on the boat ride and also disposed of the waste food in the river.

They were arrested on March 17 by the Varanasi Police acting on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha district president Rajat Jaiswal.

Counsel for Petitioner: Advocates Abhijeet and Gunjeet Singh along with petitioner in person.