MIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, against whom FIRs have been filed with respect to allegedly offensive speeches made by him at Adilabad and Nizamabad, has requested a time of 4 days to appear before the police.
Akbaruddin, who has
notices posted on the wall of his residence asking him to appear before the police today, arrived early in the morning from London where he had gone for his ongoing treament to intestinal damage he had sustained during
a land row in 2011.
He was supposed to appear before the Nirmal police in Adilabad today, and in Nizamabad town tomorrow, i.e., 8 January 2013. In anticipation of Akbaruddin's arrival, section 144 has been imposed in Nirmal.
Akbaruddin Owaisi allegedly made anti-Hindu speeches, mocking Hindu deities, customs, and festivals, at Nirmal on 24 December during the mass contact progmramme recently undertaken by the MIM. Cases were booked against him following
petitions by Kashimshetty Karuna Sagar, a practicing advocate in Hyderabad, and several other persons.
Refuting charges that Akbaruddin would try to escape the law, MIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi claimed that Akbar has no need to flee from the law, as his grouse is not with Hindus or any other religious group, but with the alleged discrimination against Muslims by Congress and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy. Asaduddin also claimed that the whole case was being cooked up by the Congress in retaliation to MIM having broken away from them.
The police, on the other hand, say that the YouTube videos circulating through the internet, which seems to be the only evidence of the speeches, are not sufficient to prosecute Owaisi as they do not have the proper equipment to determine the authenticity of the videos.It will take a while for them to import the equipment, but, in the meanwhile the only other option is live witnesses who can be tricky to find, say the police.