The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said there was “a lot of rhetoric” in a petition seeking direction to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to find out “anti-national forces” behind the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the Capital in 2020.
A Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anup J. Bhambhani said, “This is just a lot of rhetoric. There are no substantial prayers in this [petition]. National security is the lookout of the government... This is not a platform for rhetoric. This is a serious platform”.
“We have to look at hard criminality... If you have grievances in general nature about national security, you are free to agitate before whatever forum but I don’t think we can help you here,” the Bench said but agreed to hear the petition by Ajay Gautam next week.
Mr. Gautam, in his plea, contended that “anti national and anti-Hindu forces are behind these protests and some vested interests/parties/countries are funding these protesters”. He sought a direction to the NIA to investigate the role of People’s Front of India in the anti-CAA protests, which he claimed was allegedly “funding, motivating and backing these anti-national protests”.
The plea also sought direction to register a case against AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) party leaders Waris Pathan and Assuaddin Owaisi, Congress leader Salman Khurshid and other persons for allegedly provoking the citizens against CAA.
Mr. Gautam also claimed that “the pattern of protest is very suspicious. Old women and children are being used as main protesters and the men of their community stand behind them and they openly behave as if they are from Palestine or agents of Gulf countries”. He sought an NIA probe under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) into the violence of February 2020.
The High Court is also seized of several other petitions relating to the north-east Delhi riots and alleged hate speeches by leaders.
