The Uttarakhand administration imposed Section 144 CrPC that prohibits assembly of more than four persons in Roorkee where a Dharam Sansad was scheduled on Wednesday.
The police have detained around 10 persons associated with the event.
A day ago, the Supreme Court directed the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary to place on record that no untoward statement would be made at the event at Dada Jalalpur village and warned that it would hold top officials responsible in case of any hate speech is made.
The village was witness to a communal tension on April 16 when a Hanuman Jayanti procession was allegedly pelted with stones.
On Tuesday, a three-judge Bench of the apex court headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said, “We will hold the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and the IG concerned responsible if any untoward situation happens despite your assurance. We are putting it on record.”
Main organiser detained
Speaking to The Hindu, Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar said, “the programme could not take place as we imposed Section 144 (CrPC) in the area. Around 10 persons have been detained under Section 151 CrPC. We ensured that the restrictions are imposed strictly.” Anand Swaroop, the main organiser of the religious conclave, has been taken into preventive detention.
Section 151 says that a police officer knowing of a design to commit any cognizable offence may arrest, without orders from a magistrate and without a warrant, the person so designing, if it appears to such officer that the commission of the offence cannot be otherwise prevented.
“Thirty-three people associated with organising the event have been detained to prevent the ‘mahapanchayat’ from taking place. Those detained include Kali Sena’s Sstate convenor Dineshanand Bharti, who had given a call for holding the event and his six supporters,” SSP Yogendra Singh Rawat was quoted by PTI as saying.
The top court on Tuesday was hearing a petition filed by journalist Qurban Ali and former Patna High Court judge and senior advocate Anjana Prakash, who sought a direction for an “independent, credible and impartial investigation” by an SIT into incidents of hate speeches against the Muslim community.
