Hate speech: Delhi Police registers FIRs against Nupur Sharma, Jindal, Owaisi

New Delhi: Delhi Police has registered FIRs against former BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand and others for allegedly posting and sharing messages on social media against the maintenance of public tranquility and inciting people on divisive lines, officials said on Thursday.

The FIRs were registered after an analysis of social media, they said.

The cases have been registered against those who were posting and sharing messages against the maintenance of public tranquility and were inciting people on the basis of divisive lines," a senior police officer said.

The cases have been registered under sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, he said.

One case has been registered against Sharma and another against multiple social media entities, including Owaisi, Jindal, Narsinghanand, Shadab Chauhan, Saba Naqvi, Maulana Mufti Nadeem, Abdur Rehman and Gulzar Ansari, based on the analysis, the officer said.

Notices will be sent to the social media intermediaries for the details, he added.

We have registered 2 FIRs under appropriate sections on the basis of social media analysis against those trying to disrupt public tranquility & inciting people on divisive lines. One pertains to Ms Nupur Sharma & other against multiple social media entities, Delhi Police tweeted.

"Even as Notices are being sent to social media intermediaries for details of those behind these accounts/entities, #DelhiPolice appeals to everyone to desist from posting anything that may disrupt social and communal harmony," it added.

The FIRs have been registered by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operation (IFSO) unit of the Special Cell, police said.

On Wednesday, police had said the unit will investigate the roles of various social media entities in promoting false and wrong information with an intention to create unrest on the cyber space, that have ramifications on the physical space thereby compromising with the social fabric of the country.

Earlier, Delhi Police had provided security to Sharma and her family after an FIR was registered on a complaint that she was getting death threats over her controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammad.

She had requested the police to provide security citing harassment and threats she had been receiving.

The BJP on Sunday had suspended Sharma and expelled its Delhi unit media head Jindal as the row over their alleged derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad escalated with protests from many Muslim countries.