When It Comes to Muslims Police Happily Agrees to Please Right-Wingers and Judiciary sits idle

The 28-year-old, Munawar Faruqui, a stand-up comedian from Gujarat is currently lodged in Indore Jail and facing legal actions in two of the Bhartiya Janta Party ruling states. 

He along with four others were arrested on January 1st by the Indore Police after the complaint filed by Eklavya Singh Gaur, son of Indore BJP MLA Malini Gaur. 

In the complaint, Eklavya Gaur mentioned that they have insulted Hindu deities during a comedy show and also cracked jokes about the Home Minister Amit Shah. 

The police have arrested them under the IPC sections 295-A (outraging religious feelings), 269 (unlawful or negligent act likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) and other relevant provisions. Section 269 was invoked for allegedly ignoring COVID-19 safety protocols, Firstpost reports. 

Now, after the Indore Police, a production warrant has been submitted by the Praygraj police on Saturday 16th before the chief judicial magistrate court in Indore and the city’s central jail authorities, where Faruqui is lodged.

He has been also asked to appear before a court in the state of Uttar Pradesh over an earlier case of “insulting” Hindu deities as well as Amit Shah. 

All are Equal Before Law. Really? 

This is not against Kunal Kamra or an individual but just a reminder to those who refuse to acknowledge their privileges and keep on telling us that both Hindus and Muslims are suffering in Modi’s India when you feel like saying that again, remember Munnawar Farooqui. ~ Asad Ashraf

Previously Indore Police has admitted that they didn’t find any evidence to convict the Faruqui yet the police is pursuing the case. 

In an interview,” local police officer Kamlesh Sharma told the news daily days after the initial arrest. He added that the two videos submitted by the complainant were of another comedian”.

Last week, Indore’s Superintendent of Police Vijay Khatri told news portal Article 14 that Faruqui was arrested after Gaur, son of the BJP politician, said he overheard some jokes during rehearsal. The lack of video evidence was not important.

“Doesn’t really matter,” Khatri told the website. “There was a ruckus at the venue even before Faruqui could perform. But, we were told [by the complainants] that they [the comedians] were cracking jokes about Ram and Shiv Ji [the Hindu deities] while rehearsing.”

Nearly three weeks later, Faruqui has been denied bail by lower courts. His lawyers approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court last week but the hearing was adjourned after the police failed to produce the case diary.

In conversation with NDTV, Faruqui’s defender Anshuman Shrivastav said this was the result of police “negligence” and that the document was located in a police station across the street from the court.

It’s undoubtedly true that police has been behaving in fascist fashion in detaining, or the more correct word would be abducting activists. The comedians are now easy targets. The vigilante has indeed become a mainstream and the freedom of speech is under the threat. 

Yet when it comes to Muslim all section of society including judiciary often disappoints. Vigilantes are entertained; police happily agrees to pursue a case to please the right-wingers and judiciary sits idle and ignores the clear biases.