Hate speech case: Court issues notice to Varun Gandhi

Pilibhit (UP), Jul 8: A local court has issued notice to BJP MP Varun Gandhi asking him to appear in court in connection with a 2009 hate speech case. The notice was sent to Varun yesterday by District Judge Kautilya Kumar Gaur through the Lok Sabha Speaker as he did not appear in the court.

The court fixed September 30 as the next date of hearing. After Varun was acquitted in a 2009 hate speech case in 2013, a social worker Asad Hayat had challenged the order in the district court after which summons were sent to him but he did not appear in court.

Varun had allegedly made inflammatory comments against a particular community in his speeches at public meetings in Pilibhit during the 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign. The BJP leader was booked under various sections of the IPC and the People's Representation Act for promoting enmity and acts prejudicial against communal harmony.

The first FIR was lodged on March 17, 2009, at Barkhera Police Station for an inflammatory speech during a public meeting on March 8, 2009. The second FIR was lodged at Sadar Kotwali on March 18, 2009, again for allegedly making a speech with communal overtones in Dalchand locality.

Varun had strongly denied the charges and termed the case as an attempt to malign him. MA Kadri Shakir, lawyer of Hayat, said that as Varun did not appear in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court, he had appealed in the District Judge's court.

PTI