Hate speech: Owaisi arrested; sent to 14-day judicial custody

Mangaloretoday/CNN/IBN

Hyderabad, Jan 8: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, who was arrested on the charge of not cooperating with the police in connection with the hate speech case against him, has been sent to 14-day judicial custody. Sources say Owaisi was arrested as the police officers were not convinced by the MLA’s explanation that he had gone to London for medical treatment.

Owaisi was on Tuesday night taken to Nirmal in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh where an FIR has been registered against him for allegedly delivering a hate speech. Owaisi’s lawyer Shafiuddin Khan on Tuesday accused the police of arresting the MLA arbitrarily. He claimed that the MLA was not well and could collapse due the stress after his arrest.

"Akbaruddin Owaisi never wanted to evade the law, he had been cooperating. Owaisi had not eaten food since morning, he was not even given the medical report. We have not been informed by the police where Owaisi has been taken. Owaisi was not allowed to go to his house also, Owaisi had gone to London for re-evaluation and medical check-up," said Khan. "We have maintained total cooperation. Police are not sure what they want to do. Owaisi has developed acute pain and hernia due to which he is suffering," he added.

Two FIRs were registered suo motu at Adilabad and Nizamabad districts while a third case was registered by Osmania University police, following a court directive after Owaisi allegedly used inflammatory language against a particular community in December 2012.

Owaisi has been booked under Sec 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and Sec 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of IPC. The MIM legislator has also been booked under Sec 121 (waging or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India) of IPC.

He returned from London on Monday morning but was not arrested at the Hyderabad airport. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday alleged that the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh was shielding Owaisi.

Meanwhile, Owaisi’s lawyer has filed three more petitions in the court demanding medical treatment and higher security for the MIM MLA.

"We have already filed three petitions before the court. One is for medical treatment petition Sec 54 CRPC. Second, we have requested the court to sent Owaisi to Chanchanjura jail so that he could be provided good treatment and he is safe. The third demand we made was that as he is a floor leader in the Assembly, he needs A-category facilities also," said Owaisi’s counsel V Balaraju.