Central “Supreme Court Grants Interim Bail to Former UP Shia Waqf Board Chief on Medical Grounds”

The former chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board, Waseem Rizvi (now known as Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi), was granted three months of interim bail by the Supreme Court on medical grounds. He had been arrested for alleged inflammatory speeches at a &Dharam Sansad& in Haridwar in December. The bench, led by Justice Ajay Rastogi, also instructed Tyagi to refrain from making any more inflammatory speeches during this period. The bench, which also included Justice Vikram Nath, was hearing Tyagi’s appeal against the Uttarakhand High Court’s decision to deny him bail. Previously, the Supreme Court had asked the state government to respond to his bail plea. The state government emphasized the importance of maintaining communal harmony and urged Tyagi to avoid making any provocative statements. The case against Tyagi was filed on January 2, 2022, by Nadeem Ali of Jwalapur Haridwar. He was arrested on January 13 under Sections 153A and 298 of the Indian Penal Code for promoting enmity between different groups and hurting religious sentiments deliberately. Rizvi had converted from Islam to Hinduism and changed his name in December.