Indore: More trouble for Faruqui, now UP cops want him for a 9-month-old case

Indore: Police staff of George Town Police Station of Prayagraj in Uttar
Pradesh submitted a production warrant in an Indore court for comedian
Munawar Faruqui in connection with a case registered there in April.
Munawar has been behind bars since his arrest on January 1 for
allegedly hurting religious sentiments during a programme.

//CASE IN PRAYAGRAJ
A case was registered against Faruqui for 'insulting' Hindu deities
and Union home minister Amit Shah at George Town police station on
April 19, 2020 by local lawyer Ashutosh Mishra.

The FIR of the case states that the accused Munawar Faruqui had made
objectionable comments on the Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

The case was lodged under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity between
different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth,
residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance
of harmony), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage
religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious
beliefs), and sections 65 and 66 of Information Technology Act.

Regarding the case, the UP police have now demanded Munawar's custody
and submitted a production warrant.

//Jail Superintendent said
“We have received information about the production warrant but the
date is not mentioned in the warrant of hearing of Faruqui. After
hearing in the High Court bench of Indore on January 25 further
decisions will be made. If the court grants bail to him (Faruqui) we
will hand over his custody to UP police or if his bail gets rejected
we will send him when the court there will call him for hearing,” said
Central Jail Superintendent Rakesh Bhangre.

//Edwin bail rejected
The advocate in the case Rajesh Joshi said that the bail application
in Edwin Anthony case has been rejected by the lower court.

//CASE TIMELINE
JANUARY 1: Munawar Faruqui was arrested along with four others for
allegedly insulting and making indecent remarks on Hindu deities and
Union Home Minister Amit Shah during a New Year show in Indore. The
four others arrested include Prakhar Vyas, Priyam Vyas, Nalin Yadav,
and event coordinator Edwin Anthony. The arrests were made based on a
complaint filed at the Tukoganj police station, by Eklavya Singh Gaur,
son of a MLA (Indore-4) Malini Laxman Singh Gaur.

JANUARY 15: the hearing on Munawar's bail petition was extended as the
Tukojiganj police failed to present the case diary in the court. The
Indore bench of the Madhya High Court deferred the bail hearing to
next week on January 25.

// “No Evidence, No Case Diary”
Claims were made in the case stating that the police are not having
any evidence in the case, SP (East) Vijay Khatri denied the facts and
told Free Press that police have enough evidence against
Faruqui and others.