NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has asked the Rajasthan government to explain as to how some videos of hate speech were uploaded on the Internet from Jodhpur jail premises by Shambhu Lal Regar, who is accused of hacking and burning alive a Muslim labourer from West Bengal.
The top court also sought response from Regar as to why he should not be transferred to Delhi's Tihar jail or any other jail out of Rajasthan.
"Issue notice to the newly added respondent (Raigar), returnable on January 21, 2019. In the meantime, the State of Rajasthan shall file its counter affidavit to these proceedings. The State shall, in particular, explain whether a video was uploaded from within the jail premises by the newly added respondent and, if so, how that was possible," said a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for Gulbahar Biwi, wife of the victim who was allegedly killed by Raigar in on December 6 last year, said that the accused has been continuously uploading videos of hate speech on the Internet and should be transferred to Tihar jail or any other prison outside the state.
Counsel appearing for Rajasthan said she has recently checked and found that such videos have been taken down by Internet service providers.
Jaising however refuted the claims and said that videos were very much available on the Net.
The bench then asked the counsel for Rajasthan to verify whether the videos uploaded by Regar from the jail were still available on the Internet and posted the matter for further hearing on January 21.
The apex court had on April 2 sought response from the CBI and the Rajasthan government on a plea seeking transfer of Raigar to Tihar jail.
Bibi said the prime accused had recently uploaded videos on social networking sites.
The apex court had on February 16 directed the CBI to seek instructions on a plea of the widow seeking an independent probe into the murder.
It had asked the lawyer appearing for the agency to take appropriate instructions on conducting the probe and providing of adequate compensation sought by the petitioner.
Bibi has also sought a direction that the video of her husband's ghastly murder be withdrawn from the Internet and social media sites.
She has also sought transfer of the case from Rajasthan to West Bengal.
Earlier, the apex court had termed as "horrendous" the video of the labourer being hacked and burnt alive in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district.
Khan's widow had said that the video had already been seen by millions of people and a direction be issued to the Centre and the state government to ensure that it was not circulated any further and withdrawn from the Internet.
She had also said the victims should be granted fundamental right to access to justice, as "unruly crowd has been attempting to stall the judicial process to favour the accused".
The plea sought appointment of a special public prosecutor to conduct the trial and transfer of the investigation to Malda district in West Bengal where the petitioner resides.
The killing of Khan, who hailed from West Bengal, was recorded on camera by the minor nephew of Raigar.
Regar, after the killing, was allegedly seen on the video ranting that he did it to 'stop Love Jihad', a term publicised to refer to Muslim men marrying Hindu women.