[Tripura Violence] Supreme Court notice to Centre, Tripura govt on plea seeking SIT probe

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Central and Tripura governments on a plea for an investigation by a special investigation team (SIT) into the incidents of violence in Tripura against the Muslim community [Ehtesham Hashmi vs. Union of India]..A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna was hearing a petition filed by advocate Ehtesham Hashmi seeking the Court’s immediate intervention in hate crimes that allegedly took place in October in Tripura.Hashmi submitted that he had personally visited riot affected areas of the State along with other Delhi based advocates and published a fact-finding report about the visit. The following findings were inter alia published in the report: a) 12 Mosques were damaged;b) 9 shops owned by Muslim businessmen were damaged; c) 3 houses owned by Muslims were vandalised.The above findings were arrived at by the petitioner after meeting with families and persons who were at the receiving end of the vandalism, the plea said.However, instead of taking action against the miscreants and rioters, the police took action against those who spoke against the same, it was contended..Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioner, brought to the Court’s attention that instead of taking adequate steps to prevent the hate crimes that took place over a period of ten days or providing adequate relief to the victims, the respondents were hand in glove with the perpetrators.“They are not registering FIRs, they sent 41A notices to lawyers who worked on fact finding report and charged journalists under UAPA,” Bhushan said..It was submitted that two of the Delhi advocates part of a fact finding team were sent notices under Section 41 A of the Criminal Procedure Code ascribing their social media posts, statements and report responsibility for “promoting enmity between religious groups as well as provoking people of different religious communities to commit breach of peace”."The West Agartala Police Station has sent a notice u/s 41 A of the Criminal Procedure Code to two of the advocates that had accompanied the petitioner to conduct a fact-finding exercise and document the incidents of violence, imputing that it was their social media posts, statements and Report which were responsible for “promoting enmity between religious groups as well as provoking people of different religious communities to commit breach of peace,” the plea said..Further it was also put to the Bench that the police had invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against 102 people, including journalists, for reporting and writing on the violence. It was stated that the conduct of the police was manifestly arbitrary and mala fide, affecting the victims’ right to justice and was also violative of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution of India..Besides seeking an SIT probe, the plea additionally sought directions to the respondents to comply with the principles laid down in the judgment of the Supreme Court in Tehseen Poonawalla v. Union of India which would be applicable in preventing and prosecuting violent hate crimes.