Kolkata: A single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Thursday, directed the West Bengal Police to submit a detailed report justifying why an FIR was registered against Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) over a Ram Navami procession.
The VHP had organised the event at Kolkata-adjacent Howrah district on April 6
The single judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed the state police to submit the report along with supporting documents justifying the FIR by April 25. The police were asked to clarify why criminal proceedings were initiated based on the FIR.
The FIR was registered, accusing the VHP of violating the court-imposed restrictions on the Ram Navami procession, especially as regards the maximum number of participants. However, the VHP challenged the FIR registered by the police against it in the Calcutta High Court.
The matter came up for hearing on Thursday. The VHP counsel presented to the court the list of participants at the procession along with their supporting identity documents like Aadhaar cards.
The VHP counsel argued that while the organizers of the rally maintained the participation level within the limit imposed by the court, a number of people assembled on the roadsides to watch that procession.
The police registered the FIR showing those onlookers as part of the procession, the VHP counsel argued. He also claimed that the actual number of participants at the rally was just 303.
Thereafter, the single judge bench directed the state police to justify the reasons for registering the FIR and submit a report on the matter to the court by April 25.
It was learnt that the police had also registered an FIR against another organisation christened Anjani Putra Sena (APS), which took out a similar procession in the Howrah district on April 6 on the occasion of Ram Navami. The charges of the FIR registered against APS were the same: The number of people participating in the procession was much higher than the court-imposed limit.
Incidentally, the police initially denied permission to both VHP and APS to organise Ram Navami processions in the Howrah district. However, both the organizers later organised their respective processions after getting permission from the Calcutta High Court.
(IANS)
