In verbal duel with Baliyan, Round-1 to Azam

Seven FIRs —- five in Rampur district and one each in Moradabad and Amroha districts —- have been lodged against Baliyan for allegedly calling Azam a “killer, thief and a terrorist” during a BJP rally in Amroha on December 21.

On the sidelines of a Kisan Sammelan Baliyan had targeted Azam for his statement that funds for the grand birthday celebrations of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had come from the Taliban, LeT and Dawood Ibrahim. Baliyan had said a man who has openly admitted to taking money from terrorists is the biggest terrorist himself.

All the seven cases against Baliyan have been filed under IPC sections 153 A (Promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race) and 505 (statement conducting to public mischief). Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of IPC has been invoked in a some of the FIRs.

The five cases in Rampur were lodged on complaints filed by Fasahat Ali Khan ‘Shanu’ who is Azam’s public relation officer in the district Rampur and Samajwadi Party workers — Arvind Gupta, Haji Mohammad Jameel, Wahid Beg, Sadab Maqsoor. In Moradabad and Amroha, the cases were lodged on complaints of SP workers Syed Arif Hasan and Manveer Singh Chikara.

Additional Superintendent of Police, Rampur, Ashok Kumar Verma said that investigating officers of the five cases would decide and transfer the investigation to the concerned police station in Amroha where the alleged speech was given. Similarly, SHO of Mughalpura police station in Moradabad, T S Yadav too said the investigation has been transferred to Amroha.

Meanwhile, different wings of BJP too have filed complaints —- two in Muzaffarnagar and one in Saharanpur —- against Azam after he slammed RSS for trying to glorify Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. Terming Godse as the “first terrorist” of the country Azam had said RSS should be banned.

The police are yet to lodge a case on complaints against Azam reportedly filed by city BJP president Shri Mohan Tayal and former district president of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Rohan Tyagi in Muzaffarnagar, and BJP youth wing leader Chaudhary Gurdesh in Saharanpur.

The SHOs of concerned Civil Lines and City Kotwali police stations in Muzaffarnagar denied having received any such complaint against Azam while SO of Sadar police station in Saharanpur confirmed having received a complaint and said it was under consideration.
Contacted, Baliyan told The Indian Express, “Our leaders have filed complaints against Azam but the UP Police, working under (state government’s) pressure, are not registering the case against him”.

The complainants claimed that if police failed to lodge FIRs against Azam, they will move court.