AIMIM leader Waris Pathan booked for hate speech in Karnataka

BENGALURU: All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Waris Pathan has been booked for allegedly making a hate speech at an anti-CAA rally in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi, police said on Sunday.

“We have booked a case against Pathan for reportedly making a hate speech at an anti-CAA rally in the city on February 15 and summoned him to appear before us for interrogation by February 29,” Kalaburagi police commissioner M.N. Nagaraj told IANS on phone. Kalaburagi is about 580 km north of Bengaluru in the southern state. The case was booked against the Mumbai-based Pathan under sections 153A and 117 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on a complaint by a local lawyer - Shwetha Omprakash Rathod that the former made provocative statements against the Hindu community. “Though the organizers took permission to hold a protest rally and a public meeting on last Saturday, we learned from the complaint and video footage of the event Pathan saying in Hindustani that ’15 crore Muslims were more than a match to 100 crore Hindus’ to the gathering,” said Nagaraj.

Pathan, 51, is a former legislator of the Hyderabad-based party from Mumbai’s Byculla Assembly segment and a practicing lawyer in Maharashtra. The complaint also quoted Pathan bragging in Hindi and Urdu “to those saying we have only put our women at the forefront of the protest against the CAA, NRC and NPR...only our lionesses have come out till now and you are already sweating”. (IANS)

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