SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Gorakhpur: Journalist Parvez Parwaz, who was serving a life sentence in an alleged gang rape case, passed away in his cell at Gorakhpur Jail late Saturday night (October 11). He was 72.
His death was confirmed by the jail authorities. They said that Parwaz developed breathing difficulties and was promptly shifted to the district hospital, where he died while on treatment. He was also suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes.
Stood up against Yogi
Parvez Parwaz will always be remembered as the person who stood against Yogi Adityanath when the latter was not even the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
In 2007, two Hindu youth died following a clash during a Muharram procession. Yogi Adityanath, who then served as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP representing Gorakhpur, delivered a communal speech saying, “In the coming time, for the blood of one Hindu, we will not get an FIR registered against the administration, but will instead have at least 10 such people killed.”
The speech was made at an anti-Muslim gathering near a statue of Maharana Pratap. His speech created ripple effects across the city.
The Caravan published an article speaking to several Muslims and Hindus during the uneasy times. Sunil Singh, the then president of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, said that Yogi’s speech was so electrifying that it was not finished and they looted and ransacked a nearby hotel owned by a Muslim man. “The riots started from there. At least two people were killed and many displaced,” he said.
Parwaz, who was passing by, heard Yogi and filed a complaint. He had recorded Yogi’s hate speech with his camera as evidence. In 2008, he filed a first information report (FIR) against Yogi Adityanath.
He approached a local court seeking action against Yogi, but the district magistrate rejected his plea. He then approached the Supreme Court, but faced a dead end.
His complaints were repeatedly ignored for ten years.
Yogi becomes CM in 2017; Parwaz gets arrested
Things changed in 2017 when Yogi was elected as the Chief Minister. In 2018, a woman accused Parwaz and another person, Jumman Baba, of allegedly raping her.
Her complaint stated that she had gone to Jumman Baba’s house “seeking remedies” for her marital problems, when he took her to an isolated spot and raped her at gunpoint, along with “someone Jumman called Parvez bhai.”
Parwaz was sentenced to life imprisonment on July 28, 2020.
Parwaz’s friends told The Wire that he was falsely implicated in the case, allegedly because of his persistence in the hate speech case against Yogi Adityanath. “The case had no merit. Parwaz has had to face multiple charges since 2007, when he lodged a hate speech complaint against the then Gorakhpur MP Adityanath,” a lawyer friend of Parwaz told The Wire on the condition of anonymity.
Recently, French filmmaker Valentin Henault shared his experience while serving jail time at Gorakhpur Jail in 2023. He spent one month there, where he met an ailing Parwaz.
Everyone called him ‘The Ghost’ because he could no longer speak. He was very ill. He had trouble eating and talking. As we jokingly would say to each other:
Kabhi Kabhi iss sansaar mein kuch insaaf nahi hai,
Kuch log shaitan hai, aur kuch log bahut shaitan hai
SOURCE : SIASAT
