Abu Azmi indulged in ‘dirty game’

MUMBAI: Metropolitan magistrate Sanjashree Gharat of the Mazgaon court said that Samajwadi Party (SP) state president and MLA Abu Asim Azmi’s hate speech delivered in 2000 promoted enmity between two religious groups and was prejudicial to national integration. This observation was made in a 14-page judgment copy delivered on Monday. The court has convicted Azmi and four others for making an inflammatory speech to incite communal violence during a rally at Nagpada.The magistrate observed that impairing emotional sentiments of others has become a “dirty game of a few anti-social elements and they provoke different groups (against each other) and set ablaze the nation’s property” and put the lives of people at risk.
The court sentenced Azmi and four others, Waqarunnissa Ansari, Lalbahadur Singh, Ehsanullah Khan and Ali M Shamsi, to two years’ imprisonment and fined them Rs 11,000 each. The magistrate allowed suspension of the order, enabling them to leave after they paid the fine and furnished personal sureties. They were convicted under IPC sections 153A (inciting communal passions), 153B (making imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 153 (wantonly causing provocation with the intent to cause riot). Azmi’s counsel Ejaz Naqvi said they will file an appeal in the sessions court in 10 days.
The magistrate observed, “It is merely on account of such devilish devices adopted by those at the helm of affairs who proclaim from rooftops to be the defenders of democracy and protectors of people’s rights and yet do not hesitate to hide behind the screen to let loose their men to settle personal scores, feigning ignorance of what happens.” She called the present case an apt but unwanted instance of such kind.
Refusing a plea from the accused seeking leniency, the court said, “Considering the gravity of the offence, it is necessary that the accused be dealt with as a deterrent. Eventually, such a tough approach (is) helpful to eradicate or at least minimize from society the evil crime of taking law into one hands,” the court said. It noted that Azmi and the other accused provoked the masses to exact revenge.