KASARGOD: The non-bailable charge slapped against Madhya Pradesh-based preacher Sadhvi Saraswati for alleged hate speech will not stand legal scrutiny, said BJP district president K Shreekanth. “The case was filed by the police after coming under pressure of religious extremists,” he said.The Badiadka police had charged Saraswati with Section 295A, a non-bailable offence, for alleged “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings”.
At ‘Virat Hindu Convention’, she had called on people to take up swords and slash the neck of cow slaughterers and ‘love jihadis’, and place the heads at the feet of ‘Bharat Mata’. Shreekanth said he
was present at the event, and the speech was made in the presence of police officers. “If the speech was inflammatory, the police would have booked her that day itself,” he said.
He said at the best, Section 153 of the IPC would stick, which dealt with ‘wantonly giving provocation with the intention to cause rioting.’ The police have charged her with that too, but it is a bailable offence. Shreekanth, who is also a lawyer, said the gist of Saraswati’s speech was a call to girls and young women to protect themselves. “It was more of a call for self-defence,” he said.
The BJP district president said those who witnessed the “unity of Hindu community” at the convention influenced the Pinarayi Vijayan Government to file a case against her. “It is an example of appeasement politics,” he said.He said the police had not “moved their little finger” when CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan gave that infamous ‘tit for tat’ speech calling on cadre to resort to violence.