Dharam Sansad hate speech case: Supreme Court grants interim bail to Jitendra Tyagi on medical grounds

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted three months interim bail to Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi, previously known as Wasim Rizvi, who was arrested earlier this year on charges of alleged hate speech at the Dharm Sansad event in Haridwar last December.

While granting the interim bail on medical grounds, the top court stated that Tyagi has to provide an undertaking of refraining from any hate speech or statements to any electronic or digital or social media, reported Live Law.

The top court was hearing a petition filed by Tyagi challenging a Uttarakhand High Court order rejecting his bail plea in the Haridwar Dharm Sansad hate speech case.

The Uttarkhand government told the apex court that the maximum sentence for the offence Tyagi is charged with is three years and a bail can only be granted to him if “he mends his ways.”

“…we have to maintain communal harmony at all costs. He should not make a statement of hate speech and if he does we will arrest him. Bail will automatically stand cancelled and we will arrest him under Section 41B of CrPC. As far as his medical condition is concerned, it is stable. He has some cardiac problems. The first FIR we are investigating as of now,” the State counsel for Uttarakhand submitted, as reported by Live Law.

“For four months he has already been in custody. What further investigation do you want from him? It is already complete,” the bench had said.

Tyagi was once heading the UP Shia Waqft Board. He converted to Hinduism in December last year. Tyagi was held on January 13 under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings of any person) of the Indian Penal Code.

Last month, the SC had pulled up the Uttarakhand government for allowing the Dharm Sansad event to proceed at Roorkee even after prior notice and directed the state Chief Secretary to ensure “no hate speeches are made.”