The Bombay High Court in its order granting bail to three members of Hindu Rasthra Sena (HRS) in the murder of a Muslim man in Pune has said that the application was considered favourably as the accused were provoked in the name of religion and had no other criminal record in the past. Of the 21 accused, 14 have been granted bail so far.
"The fault of the deceased was only that he belonged to another religion. I consider this factor in favour of the applicants/accused. More-over, the applicants/accused do not have any criminal record and it appears that in the name of the religion, they were provoked and have committed the murder,” observed Justice Mridula Bhatkar in her January 12 order, according to a report in the Indian Express.
Mohsin Shaikh, a 28 year-old Muslim man who worked in a Pune firm, was murdered on his way home after offering prayers at a masjid on the night of June 2, 2014 allegedly by HRS members protesting a Facebook post of some derogatory pictures of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Bal Thackeray.
According to the report, the family of Mohsin is planning to move the Supreme Court against the grant of bail to the accused. Quorting sources, the report says that the Maharashtra government too may challenge the bail to the three accused, namely, Vijay Rajendra Gambhire, Ganesh alias Ranjeet Shankar Yadav and Ajay Dilip Lalge.
“We are not convinced by the ground on which the HC has granted bail to the accused. Is provocative speech permissible for murder of an innocent person from another religion? All three accused were arrested from the murder spot. We have decided to challenge this bail order in Supreme Court,” Mohsin's father Sadiq Shaikh told the newspaper.
Justice Bhatkar noted that the accused had attended a meeting “prior to the incident of assault. The applicants/accused otherwise had no other motive such as any personal enmity against the innocent deceased Mohsin,” adding, Dhananjay Desai was the one who was the speaker in the meeting and he instigated the audience… the transcript of the speech given by Dhananjay Desai was sufficient to show that he had incited feelings of religious discrimination. The meet was held… prior to the incident of assault.”
According to the chargesheet in the case the HRS activists had gathered at Gondhale Mala in Hadapsar around 8.30 on the night of the murder. “The activists were carrying hockey sticks, wooden batons etc. During the meeting, they started discussing that HRS president Dhananjay Bhai has said that Muslims should be thrashed for posting derogatory pictures of Shivaji Maharaj on Facebook. Their vehicles, shops should be damaged. They should not be allowed to do any business in the area. There should be terror of HRS in Hadapsar,” the report quoted from the chargesheet.
