Bengaluru: A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against unknown people allegedly threatening the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court over the recent court order on the hijab ban in the state.
In the FIR, lawyer Umapathi S has alleged that he received a video message on Whatsapp which gave an open threat of Murder to Chief Justice Ritu Raj Aswathi.
The hijab is not an essential religious practice, the Karnataka High Court had said as it backed a ban on hijabs in classrooms on Tuesday, weeks after violent protests in many parts of the state against the restriction.
According to NDTV report, the lawyer said, “I was shocked to see the video and its content. That’s why I immediately approached the (high court) Registrar.”
In a letter to Registrar, the lawyer said, “I received WhatsApp video message around 9:45 am from my contacts. The said video message is in Tamil language and after listening the same I was shocked to know the open threat of murder and target Hon’ble Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court and others in the wake of recent judgment of Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka banning of hijab.”
The lawyer alleged the video “seems to have originated from Tamil Nadu (probably Madurai district) in an open public meeting, where the speaker refers to the murder of Hon’ble Judge while walking in Jharkhand state.” An autorickshaw had intentionally ran over and killed a judge in Jharkhand in July last year, which was seen on CCTV. The case was taken up by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
“The speaker makes a similar threat to Hon’ble Chief Justice of Karnataka by stating people know where the Chief Justice goes for walking,” the lawyer alleged.
The Karnataka High Court’s order on the hijab ban has been challenged in the Supreme Court by Niba Naaz, a student who was not among the five who had originally petitioned against the hijab ban.
Schools had reasonable grounds to impose dress codes that forbade the hijab in the interests of preventing divisions on religion and other grounds, the judgment said. “The aim of the regulation is to create a ‘safe space’… and the ideals of egalitarianism should be readily apparent to all students,” it said.
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