Supreme Court refuses to entertain Ashish Khetan's plea against death threats

A plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashish Khetan alleging death threats from right-wing organisations was refused by the Supreme Court on Monday.

In the plea, Khaitan has also sought framing of guidelines to be adopted by the probe agencies for dealing with such complaints. However, he was asked by a bench of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit to approach the Delhi High Court with his plea.

The leader sought protection from the apex court by approaching it on May 24. He said that he had received a threatening letter written in Hindi at his office claiming that his death was imminent on May 9.

I had even complained to the Delhi Police Commissioner about the threat but no substantive action has been taken by them till now, Khetan said earlier.

ALSO READ: 3 AAP MLAs booked for assaulting woman in Delhi Assembly premises

“It is submitted that the language and content of this letter is similar to the threatening article published by Sanatan Prabhat against Dr Narendra Dabholkar, both before and after he was killed. The threat is a chilling reminder of the growing confidence of the anti-national and fascist forces who want to exterminate all dissenting voices with silence,” he said.

The vice chairman of Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi, Khetan had sought a ban on right-wing organisation, Sanatan Sanstha. Not only this, he had also asked for police protection and CBI probe by the apex court into the alleged death threats.

“The petitioner herein respectfully submits that there are right-wing extremist organisations active in the country today. Some of the prominent groups among them are Sanatan Sanstha, Abhinav Bharat, Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, Hindi Rakshak Samiti, Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini, Sri Ram Sene and Vishwa Hindu Parishad,” the plea said.

“Such radical right-wing extremist organisations have notably in the last couple of years carried out several murderous attacks on those who do not share their ideology and those who are rationalists, secularists, free thinkers, anti- superstition and critical thinkers,” the plea further added.

(With PTI inputs)

ALSO READ | Presidential poll: AAP may back Meira Kumar, rules out support to Ram Nath Kovind