Old Hyderabad tense after Owaisi's arrest

A tense atmosphere prevailed in the old city of Hyderabad on Tuesday following the arrest of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi following his alleged hate speech at a public meeting in Nirmal of Adilabad district on December 24, 2012. According to sources, there was stone pelting in parts of the old city and at least two RTC buses were damaged.

Akbaruddin, the brother of Hyderabad MP and MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, has been under the police scanner after an uproar over his speech that was allegedly made to incite hate between two communities. The MLA had also allegedly made derogatory remarks about Gods of a particular religion while challenging the government to face the might of the community he represents.

However, after attending the public meeting, Akbaruddin had left for London reportedly to undergo medical treatment. Though the state police remained a spectator despite the hate speech doing rounds on Youtube, there were number of private complaints filed by individuals in various courts and police stations. While a local court in Hyderabad had directed the Osmania University police station to file a case against junior Owaisi, two other police stations in Nirmal and Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh booked cases suo motto.

Forced to take action after a flood of complaints, the state police booked Akbaruddin, who represents Chandrayangutta constituency in the state assembly, was booked under Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language, etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and Section 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against the government of India) of the IPC.