The Delhi High Court today stayed a Delhi court’s order directing the police to register an FIR against Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Alok Kumar for an alleged inflammatory speech during last year.
Justice Yogesh Khanna put on hold till May 12 the trial court order of February 18 and asked the police to file a status report before the hearing.
The trial court order had come on a plea by activist and former IAS officer Harsh Mander, who had alleged that Kumar had delivered a hate speech during a VHP rally in Old Delhi’s Lal Kuan in July.
The court’s order came on February 23, a day before communally targeted violence began in northeast Delhi, leading to the death of 53, nearly 300 injuries and immense destruction of property.
Mander, in his petition, had asked that FIRs be registered against the likes of BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma and Anurag Thakur also, who are believed to have incited violence in northeast Delhi through hate speeches.
Kumar is “international working president” of the VHP. He has been a former deputy speaker of the Delhi assembly.