Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) supporters and close aides of party MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, who has been charged with sedition, criminal conspiracy and other charges for making a "hate speech", clashed with policemen and media persons in Old City of Hyderabad on Friday.
Police had to resort to firing tear gas shells to disperse the mob and bring the situation under control. On Wednesday, Owaisi's aides had targeted the media, attacking CNN-IBN's vans in Adilabad.
Owaisi has been booked under Sec 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and Sec 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of IPC. The MIM legislator has also been booked under Sec 121 (waging or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India) of IPC.
The party had on Thursday said the allegations of hate speech levelled against Owaisi were "baseless" and the matter would be decided in the courts. The entire episode is a conspiracy hatched against the Hyderabad-based party by Andhra Pradesh's Congress government in connivance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said Asaduddin Owaisi, the MIM president and brother of the jailed legislator. Owaisi had made the incendiary speech, using inflammatory and derogatory words, in Adilabad on December 24, 2012.