'Say Vande Mataram Or Go To Pakistan' Row: Bombay HC Dismisses FIR Against Army Man, Doctor For Hurting Muslim Sentiments

On Wednesday (25 July), the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court dismissed a first information report (FIR) against an army man and a doctor accused of offending Muslim sentiments and demanding that some men "either say Vande Mataram or go to Pakistan".

A division bench of justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Vrushali Joshi was hearing petitions filed by Pramod Shendre, an army man, and Dr Subhash Waghe, who were booked based on a complaint by 38-year-old Shahbaz Siddiqui on 3 August 2017, as per a report by Livelaw.

Siddiqui claimed he was added to a WhatsApp group named "Narkhed Ghadamodi", consisting of about 150 to 200 people from both Hindu and Muslim communities.

He alleged that Shendre and Waghe posted objectionable messages about the Muslim religion and were upset that some group members, including Siddiqui, refused to chant "Vande Mataram", telling them to leave India and move to Pakistan if they did not want to chant it.

The bench identified various errors in the investigation and the resulting chargesheet filed by the local police in Narkhed.

The judges stated, "Taking the note of the evidence i.e. collected, we are of the opinion that the Investigating Authority had adopted a 'pick and choose' method and recorded the statements of only those witnesses who are from the same community of the informant, when the group consisted of more than 150 to 200 members from the Hindu and Muslim Communities."

"There was no investigation as to who was the admin of the group, because none of these four witnesses claimed that they are the admin. The statement of admin was very much important, when such activity was going on as to what he did was also required to be considered," the judges further added.

The bench also expressed its concern that nowadays, everyone wants to assert their religion or god as supreme.

"But at the same time, we would also say that if one person says that his religion is Supreme, then the other person may not immediately react. There are ways and means to react on such sensitive issues," the bench further observed.