Govt's top lawyer allows contempt proceedings against Haridwar hate speech accused

Attorney General of India KK Venugopal has given his permission to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against the organizer of the Haridwar 'Dharam Sansad' and one of the main accused in the hate speech cases.

The Attorney General found a statement made by Yati Narsinghanand to be in contempt of the Supreme Court.

He said that Narsinghanand's comment that 'those who believe in Supreme Court and the Army will die the death of a dog' was a direct attempt to lower the authority of the top court and certainly amounts to contempt of the highest seat of the judiciary in the country.

The permission to initiate contempt proceedings was sought by lawyer-activist Sachi Nelli.

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Yati Narsinghanand organized the event in Uttarakhand's Haridwar last month that called for the genocide of Muslims. He was the second person to be taken into custody.

Video from the event was circulated on social media and drew sharp criticism from former military chiefs, retired judges, activists