A case has been registered against the administrator of a Facebook page called 'Mangalore Muslims' and another person, who had criticised one of the three judges of the Karnataka High Court hearing the hijab case on social media. The cybercrime division of the Bengaluru South division registered a suo motu case against Ateeq Shariff from Bengaluru and the administrator of the 'Mangalore Muslims' page on February 23, which came to light only recently.
The complaint says that Ateeq Shariff posted derogatory content on February 12 against Justice Krishna Dixit, questioning his credentials and integrity. Those who had liked the post against the judge may also incur the penal action, a police officer said. This incident comes close on the heels of Kannada actor Chetan Kumar’s arrest, after he tweeted against the fact that Justice Dixit had granted earlier granted bail to a rape accused.
The three-judge bench especially constituted to hear the hijab case comprises Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice J M Khazi and Justice Krishna Dixit. After hearing a batch of pleas against the ban on wearing hijabs inside educational institutions for 11 days, the bench on Friday, February 25, reserved judgments.
Earlier in February, the Mangaluru police had booked the administrators of ‘Mangalore Muslims’ for inciting hatred and violence after the murder of Harsha, a 28-year-old Bajrang Dal leader, in Karnataka’s Shivamogga. According to reports, the Facebook page had posts that defended Harsha’s death — a post claimed that Harsha was ‘killed’ for allegedly ‘abusing Prophet Mohammed in the year 2015.’ The police have said that the page Mangalore Muslims has been uploading provocative posts against Hindutva outfits as well as Hindu leaders to incite and provoke social unrest.