Woes for Owaisi compound after being slapped with another FIR for 'insulting' tricolour

The woes for AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi continued as the Barabanki Police filed another FIR against him for purportedly insulting the national flag. This was in connection with a massive rally that the Hyderabad MP addressed in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki on Thursday. As per the FIR, Owaisi disrespected the tricolour by wrapping it on a pole at the dais instead of unfurling it. During his three-day visit to the state which concluded on Thursday, he held public meetings at Ayodhya, Sultanpur and Barabanki in a bid to bolster support for his party in the upcoming UP Assembly polls. 

Owaisi under fire for 'hate speech'

Earlier, Owaisi was slapped with an FIR as COVID-19 norms and other conditions were not adhered to in the Barabanki rally.  According to Barabanki SP Yamuna Prasad, the Hyderabad MP also delivered a communal speech in which he referred to the razing of an ancient mosque in the Ram Snehi Ghat tehsil in May this year. The authorities had clarified that it was an illegal structure.

Barabanki Superintendent of Police Yamuna Prasad remarked, "A meeting of AIMIM national president Asaduddin Owaisi was going on in which COVID-19 norms and conditions for permission were openly flouted. Communal speeches were delivered to disturb communal harmony in which it was said that a 100-year old mosque in the Ram Snehi Ghat was demolished. This statement is completely bereft of facts. By making this statement, he provoked a certain community and disturbed communal harmony. Similarly, vulgar language was used against the Centre as well as the Uttar Pradesh government."

During his speech, Owaisi claimed that UP CM Yogi Adityanath had "sacrificed" the mosque when there was talk of replacing him. The AIMIM chief and the organizer of the aforesaid rally were booked under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code. Besides this, the Epidemic Diseases Act was also invoked in the FIR as more than 50 persons gathered for the meeting.