While the Supreme Court of India dismissed Nupur Sharma’s petition for the transfer of all FIRs filed against her across different states to Delhi for further investigation, the Supreme Court (SC) allowed a similar petition by the main accused in the murder of the Hindu leader Kamlesh Tiwari in 2021.
Nupur Sharma had petitioned the Supreme Court for the transfer of all FIRs filed against her across many states to Delhi for further investigation, stating that she is facing constant life threats. In a similar plea to the SC in 2021, Ashfaq Hussain, the primary accused in the murder of Hindu Samaj Party leader Kamlesh Tiwari, demanded that the trial be moved from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, to Delhi because he feared for his life. The accused claimed that a free and fair trial would not be feasible due to the state’s communally charged atmosphere.
The Supreme Court ordered in his favour and directed that the trial be moved from Lucknow to Prayagraj. Justice SK Kaul issued the judgement in response to the petition for the case to be transferred from Lucknow. When the court refused to permit moving the case’s trial to Delhi, senior lawyer Meenakshi Arora and lawyer Somesh Chandra Jha represented the accused and requested that the issue be shifted to Prayagraj.
Both cases appear to have similar merits because both petitioners stated that they are facing threats to their lives, but the Supreme Court acted differently in the case of Ashfaq Hussain, who has been accused of murder but denied any aid to Nupur Sharma, who has been facing serious threats to her life because she uttered something that has been deemed offensive by a certain section of people, and that too when the case is still under consideration. Surprisingly, the Supreme Court blamed Nupur Sharma and her “loose tongue” for statements about Prophet Muhammad that Islamists dubbed “blasphemous.”
Murder of Kamlesh Tiwari
On October 18, 2019, Hindu leader Kamlesh Tiwari was brutally killed over statements he made in 2015 that reportedly disrespected Prophet Muhammad. The Uttar Pradesh police and the Gujarat ATS swooped in to bust a Surat-based Jihadi gang indoctrinated by one of the suspects who planned the murder, Maulana Mohsin Sheikh.
Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, had granted Rs 15 lakh in financial assistance and a home for Kamlesh Tiwari’s wife. Tiwari’s Hindu Samaj Party was a little-known organisation, but he had previously served as an active member of the Hindu Mahasabha.
