Kafir post: MSF leader urges HC to reject police report, says CPM leader Lathika complicit in crime

Kozhikode: Muslim Students' Federation (MSF) leader Muhammad Khasim P K – in whose name the allegedly fabricated 'kafir' post was spread by pro-CPM Facebook pages in Vadakara on the eve of the Lok Sabha election – has urged the High Court of Kerala to reject the interim investigation report submitted by the police for not delving into the political conspiracy behind the communal campaign.

In a 12-page reply to the police's progress report on the investigation, Khasim alleged that the former MLA from Kuttiadi and CPM's State Committee member K K Lathika was "complicit in the crime right from the inception". Police took her statement and the cyber cell examined her police but did not try to identify the source from which she obtained the fake and fabricated screenshot, Khasim's counsel and IUML state general secretary Adv P A Mohammed Shah told the court.

Lathika posted the screenshot on April 25 and removed it only after 51 days on June 15. "The screenshot was available on her page even after police registered an FIR and said in their statement to the high court that the screenshot was created to spread communal disharmony and polarization," he said.

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas, whose bench is hearing Khasim's petition for a free and fair police investigation, on Friday posted the case for hearing after two weeks.

The Congress and its partner IUML had accused the CPM of fabricating the message to polarise the voters of Vadakara. On Friday, UDF MLAs walked out of the Assembly protesting against the police's decision not to charge Lathika with a hate crime.

Khasim picks holes in police investigation
On May 25, several CPM-supporting Facebook pages shared a screenshot of a WhatsApp message purportedly written by MSF Kozhikode district secretary Khasim saying: 'Shafi is a pious young man who offers namaz five times a day and the other is a non-Muslim kafir (infidel) female candidate. Who should we vote for... let us think".

The message was purportedly posted in a WhatsApp group named Youth League Nedumbramanna.

Nidumbramanna Youth League branch committee general secretary Ismail M T told police that such a WhatsApp group does not exist.

Cyber police went through Khasim's phone and found no evidence of him creating such a message or posting it on any WhatsApp group. But Vadakara police have not forgiven him.

His counsel Adv Shah listed out the lapses in the police investigation in his reply submitted to the High Court.

The screenshot first appeared on the Facebook page called 'Ambadimukk Sakhakkal Kannur'. As soon as Khasim saw the post on the page, he approached the Kozhikode Rural District Police Chief at 6 pm on April 25. He was directed to Vadakara Police Station.

The SHO did not register an FIR based on Khasim's complaint. When the police filed an FIR based on Youth League leader Ismail's complaint, they did not include Sections 153 - A, 465 and 469 of IPC though the complaint had specific allegations of promoting enmity between religious grounds, forgery and forgery to harm reputation.

Police invoked only milder charges of Section 153 of IPC (provoking riots through illegal means) and Section 120 (o) of the Kerala Police Act (creating nuisance through means of communication). First, the police denied Khasim the status of an informer by not registering an FIR on his complaint and then even after two months, they have not revised the FIR to incorporate relevant sections, said Adv Shah. It amounts to contempt of the direction issued by the Supreme Court in the Aswini Kumar Upadhyaya vs Union of India in 2022, he told the High Court. The Supreme Court had said police should register suo moto cases if offences under sections 153A, 153B, 295A or 505 of the IPC are committed.

Adv Shah also told the High Court that the police delayed in identifying the admins of 'Ambadimukk Sakhakkal Kannur', to give them "sufficient time" to delete the group, and "jeopardise the investigation".

The police have zealously arraigned the Nodal Officer of Facebook as an accused for not deleting the controversial post but took no necessary steps to book the admins of Ambadimukk Sakhakkal Kannur.

Raising these issues, Adv Shah urged the High Court to direct the Vadakara police to incorporate the relevant sections and also initiate an investigation into the criminal conspiracy into the 'kafir screenshot'.