FIR against Thackeray: court issues bailable warrant for cop

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A Delhi court has issued bailable warrants against an investigating officer of Delhi police for failing to tell the court about the progress of probe in an FIR against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Bihar natives.

“Status report not filed. Issue bailable warrant against investigating officer in sum of Rs 2,000 with one surety of like amount,” metropolitan magistrate Pawan Singh Rajawat said.

The court had on the last hearing asked the investigating officer to inform the court about the development in the probe done following the FIR registered against Thackeray on its order.

The probe in the case was with the district investigation unit of North Delhi.

The case pertains to an FIR registered against Thackeray in September 2012 under section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of place of birth, residence etc), 153B (making imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (statements conducing public mischief) IPC.

The FIR was registered on the court’s order passed on a complaint filed by advocate Prem Shankar Sharma who had said “remarks made by Thackeray in August last year where he termed Bihar natives as infiltrators and threatened to throw them out of Maharashtra were provocative and anti-national.”

He had said the MNS chief’s comments that “Bihar natives who have been living in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai, shall be kicked out of the state, were defaming and his provocative statement is against national integration as the Indian Constitution has given all citizens the right to live anywhere in the country.”