The National Commission for Women (NCW) received a notification from Alishan Jafri regarding a video circulating on Twitter inciting violence against Muslim women.
On 3 February, the Commission formally requested an explanation of the person concerned within 48 hours.
The video that was shot at Dharma Sansad on 25 – 26 December 2021 in Raipur, shows a Hindu woman known as Vibhanand Giri calling on Hindu men to r*pe and impregnate Muslim women if Muslim men cast even a glance at Hindu girls.
However, Jafri reported that the Chhattisgarh police had not taken any meaningful action against Vibhanand Giri.
Although she is not heard using the notorious bogey of ‘love jihad,’ Vibhanand’s remarks cast doubt on what she really meant. She talks about Hindu girls eloping with Muslim men. She then threatens that if even a Muslim man dares to even look at Hindu girls, then the Muslim women will suffer the consequences, be r*ped, and will give birth to babies from Hindu men without marriage (nikaah and pheras).
Giri takes consent out of the act as she threatens and calls on Hindu Men to r*pe Muslim women if their men didn’t stay out of Hindu girls.
Therefore, she is liable to be prosecuted for promoting enmity between different groups (Section 153A IPC), intentional insult with the intent to provoke breach of the peace (Section 504 IPC), words intended to insult the modesty of a woman (Section 509 IPC), criminal intimidation (Section 506 IPC), and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) if the speech is disseminated on social media.
Raipur police commissioner admitted that they had not received any complaint regarding this, therefore no action has been taken.
However, the argument is legally wrong. In the case of the state represented by the Police Inspector, Chennai Vs N.S. Gnaneswaran (2013), a division bench in the Supreme Court, stated that the law had authorized the police to investigate a cognizable offense suo-motu (alone) especially driven by the information received from several sources.
In this case, the police should have processed the case suo-muto considering the video is already in the public domain, and brought to their attention by tagging them on Twitter.
The motive behind Vibhanand Giri’s remarks is essentially the same as that of the perpetrators of the ‘Bulli Bai’ and ‘Sulli Deals’ apps, which is dragging Muslim women by insulting or threatening them with sexual violence with the real target is the self – respect of the Muslim men.
