The Punjab and Haryana high court has turned down a plea of social activist Swami Agnivesh seeking to quash an FIR filed against him for allegedly hurting sentiments of Hindus.
Justice L.N. Mittal on Tuesday held that “averments made in the FIR regarding utterances attributed to the petitioner do prima facie make out a case under Section 295-A, IPC, because such utterances certainly hurt the religious feelings of Hindus, who undertake the holy Amarnath yatra.” Earlier this year, various Hindu organisations had castigated him for his “blasphemous” remarks on the Amarnath yatra in Kashmir. A case under Section 295-A was registered against him on May 23 in Hansi sub-division of Haryana after a complaint was lodged by social activist Praveen Tayal. — PTI