New Delhi, May 12: The Delhi High Court has given an interim stay on the arrest of Delhi Minorities Commission Chairman Zafarul Islam Khan.
The bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri, after hearing through video conferencing, ordered that no coercive action be taken against Zafarul Islam till June 22.
On behalf of Zafarul Islam, advocate Vrinda Grover said that an FIR has been registered against Zafarul Islam Khan under Section 124A and Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). These FIRs have been done by distorting the facts.
By the month of March, many people in the country had given hate speech and in some places attacks on the Muslim community, as they were held responsible for coronavirus infection outbreak, have occurred, lawyer said in petition.
Two petitions were filed in the Delhi High Court to remove Zafarul Islam as the chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission. One petition was filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava and the other petition was filed by Manoranjan Kumar.
However, during the hearing on these petitions, the High Court was told that the Lt. Governor has issued a show cause notice to Zafarul Islam asking why he should not be removed from the post of chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission due to his statement.
On April 28, Khan in a tweet had thanked Kuwait for “standing with Indian Muslims,” in context of the large-scale communal violence that broke out in North East Delhi in February.
In his tweet, Khan had also praised controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, claiming he was a “respected household name in the Arab and Muslim world”.
Though, he had later apologised for his remarks. It is alleged that Naik inspired one of the terrorists in the 2016 attack on a Dhaka restaurant.
