Haryana Court Grants Bail To Rambhagat Gopal In Alleged Communal Speech Case

A Haryana Court has granted bail to Rambhagat Gopal in a case registered against him for allegedly making communal speeches at Pataudi in Gurugram. He has been granted Bail by an Additional District and Sessions judge. Gopal was arrested in this case for allegedly making provocative comments at a mahapanchayat in Pataudi wherein he allegedly provoked people to abduct Muslim girls and to kill persons of the Muslim community.Thereafter, an FIR had been registered against Gopal Sharma alias Ram Bhagat Gopal under sections 53A (promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion), 295A (malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings) of IPC at Pataudi police station and police arrested him today. Earlier, Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Sageer had denied him bail in this matter.Perusing the contents of the FIR and the video recording available, the Court had noted that it was clear that a gathering was present where the accused, Gopal Sharma gave hate speeches and used inflammatory language raised slogans in the name of religion to kill persons of particular religious community.The act of the accused i.e. hate speech qua instigating abduction and killing of girls and persons of a particular religious community is itself a form of violence and such people and their inflammatory speeches are obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit," observed the Court.Denying him bail, the Court said that enlarging him on bail despite his heinous crime which amounts to divide of the peaceful society on the basis of religion or caste would give the wrong message to the divisive forces.Significantly, the Court has also said:"Our Constitution even gives protection to non-citizens of India then its the duty of the state as well as the Judiciary to ensure that Citizens of India of any religion or faith or caste should not feel unprotected and that such hate mongers cannot walk freely without any fear."Noting that religious tolerance is the need of the time and not the Intolerance, the Court had observed that it is necessary for individual within the society to get along, especially when a variety of cultures and the people with different religious beliefs live in one community or nation.The Court even went ahead to stress that such kind of people who are trying to create disharmony and imparting hatred amongst the common people are actually harming this country more than the pandemic as the pandemic will take the life of any person without seeing the religion or caste and only upon the negligence but if any communal violence takes place following such hate speeches then lots of innocent lives will be lost only on the basis of religion and without any negligence on the part of such innocent people.Hence, observing that the alleged offenses committed by the accused person are very serious and severe in nature and that the consequences of these kinds of activities may be far more dangerous and it may translate into communal violence, the Court had denied him bail.Lastly, the Court had also observed thus:"At this juncture, rights of the accused of his personal liberty cannot be preferred against the right of the society in peaceful communal harmony and balance lies in favour of the later."Thereafter, Gopal moved the Sessions judge against this order.

Haryana Court Grants Bail To Rambhagat Gopal In Alleged Communal Speech Case

Sparsh Upadhyay

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