Stop hate speeches, apex court tells Raj Thackeray

The Supreme Court has warned Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray that unless he stopped making hate speeches against non-Maharashtrians in Mumbai, criminal cases against him would continue to be filed in different parts of the country.

“This (filing of criminal cases) will continue against you (Thackeray). Why don’t you stop this sort of thing? You go on making such statements,” a bench of chief justice KG Balakrishnan and justice BS Chauhan told Thackeray’s lawyer Mukul Rohatgi on Monday.

Thackeray had sought the shifting to Delhi of three cases filed against him in Mandasor, Madhya Pradesh (after MNS activists slapped Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi in Maharashtra’s legislative assembly), and Aurangabad, Bihar, and Jamshedpur, Jharkhand (related to Thackeray’s alleged inflammatory speeches against north Indians).

In addition, 73 cases against him are pending in courts in Maharashtra. “What is the guarantee that in future you (Thackeray) will not make such statements?” the bench asked.

Rohatgi cited an earlier order by the apex court transferring a few cases against his client to Delhi. The concerned Delhi court is seized of seven cases against the MNS chief.

Rubbishing the charges against his client, Rohatgi said they were politically motivated.

Thackeray fears he wouldn’t get fair trial in Bihar and Jharkand, both north Indian states.