Mumbai Police have registered an FIR against Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi for allegedly making remarks praising Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
Azmi was charged under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including 299 (criminalizing deliberate and malicious attempts to insult the religious beliefs of any group of people in India), 302 (intentionally hurting someone’s religious feelings), 356(1) (defamation), and 356(2) (punishment for defamation up to two years in jail, a fine, or both), based on a complaint filed by Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mhaske.
However, since the alleged remarks were made during an interview at the state legislative building, the investigation has been transferred to the Marine Drive police in Mumbai.
The complainant stated that he was watching the news around 7:30 pm on Monday when he saw Azmi, the MLA from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, praising Aurangzeb as “an excellent administrator” and asserting that India was referred to as “sone ki chidiya (golden bird)” during his reign.
The complainant, Mhaske, claimed that Azmi’s remarks defending Aurangzeb’s rule had hurt religious sentiments. Going a step further, Mhaske said that Azmi has no right to stay in India and that a case of sedition (now repealed) should be filed against him.
“A sedition case should be filed against Abu Azmi. He has no right to stay in India. Aurangzeb, who destroyed thousands of Hindu temples, tortured women, brutally tortured Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, was against the country, he looted our country… Our leader Eknath Shinde has demanded this morning itself that a sedition case should be filed against him. Today we have come here to file a sedition case against him…,” Mhaske was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The complaint also noted that Azmi claimed, “India’s GDP was 24 percent during Aurangzeb’s rule, which is why the British came to India.”
Following the case, Azmi claimed that his observations on Aurangzeb had been “misrepresented” and asserted that they were based “on what historians and writers have documented.”
“I did not make any derogatory remarks about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Sambhaji Maharaj, or any other great personalities. However, if my words have hurt anyone, I take them back along with my statement,” said Azmi.
“This issue is being turned into a political controversy, and disrupting the Maharashtra Assembly’s budget session over it, in my opinion, is a disservice to the people of Maharashtra,” he added.
