A Hindu student in Ranchi allegedly posted a communal post on her Facebook for which she was arrested. Now, the court has granted her bail on the condition that she has to distribute 5 copies of the religious text Quran, to different organisations.
Richa Bharti’s post allegedly questioned why only people from one community think of being terrorists even if it is for revenge. Her post was found objectionable and communal and she was arrested for the same.
Manish Singh, the judicial magistrate for the case has granted bail to Richa directing her to donate one copy of Quran to Sadar Anjuman Islamia Committee and 4 copies to other organisations like libraries of schools and colleges within the next 15 days.
Ramparvesh Singh, Richa Bharti’s lawyer reportedly said, “The court has given conditional bail stating that the girl will gift one copy to Anjuman Islamia in the presence of the administration and take a receipt. She would distribute four texts of the Quran to various libraries through the local police station. She has to submit the five receipts before the court within 15 days.”
SHOCKING. Hindu woman ordered to distribute Quran as a condition for her bail. She refused. BRAVO.
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) July 16, 2019
Imagine if a Muslim was ordered to distribute Gita as a condition for bail - our media would have cried SANGHI JUDICIARY for a week.
I stand with Richa Bharti. And so should YOU. pic.twitter.com/FqHlR6D7vb
When Richa shared the Facebook post with the alleged communal content, a case was registered against her with the Pithoria police station. Richa was arrested for the same and put into jail, but this action was followed by widespread protests from the local community, which was reportedly joined by some members of right wing Hindu organisations.
Some locals even staged a dharna in front of the Pithoria police station. It was withdrawn when SP Ashutosh Shekhar assured them that the accused would be released soon.
However, right after this judgement, Richa Bharti, in an interview with Zee Vihar Jharkhand, said she had no intention of complying with the court’s judgement. In the interview posted below, she argued that a lot of Muslims make objectionable posts but no action is taken against them.
She goes on to say that “There is a person on TikTok named Faizu who says that the kids of Tabrez Ansari (who was recently killed by a mob in Jharkhand on the suspicion of theft) might grow up to be terrorists to avenge him. So I only questioned why the thought of revenge only comes to Muslims why don’t the Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus who have vanished from Kashmir not think of becoming terrorists?”
According to her, that is what her Facebook post was also about. When reminded by the reporter that she had been granted bail only on the condition that she distribute Quran, Richa replied, “No, I do not want to do that. Today they are making me distribute Quran, tomorrow they might ask me to accept Islam and read Namaz. Has any Muslim who has spoken against Hindu religion been asked to read Ramayana or chant Durga paath?”
The court's decision has been receiving a lot of criticism on Twitter for being hypocritical.
She absolutely said the correct thing if today she is forced to distribute Quran tomorrow she will be forced get converted into Islam & do Nawaz.
— Riya 🔥 (@Red__Wine1) July 16, 2019
if she ws a muslim & forced to distribute Bhagavad Gita by nw all the Khan Market patrakars would hv bn on the road.