Hate Speech| Assam Judge Restricts Access To His Social Media Account After His Communal, Anti-Army Rant Goes Viral
|Social media posts of an Assistant Session Judge serving in the Udalguri district of Assam, Shah Syed Ahadur Rahman, containing controversial statements, have recently come to light and are being widely discussed on social media. The Judge's controversial posts on Twitter (now X), targeting the Hindu community and casting aspersions on the Indian army have led to widespread condemnation.
When Verdictum contacted the Registrar General of the Gauhati High Court, Aparna Ajitsaria, about the issue, she told Verdictum that she was aware of the issue, but refused to comment further about it.
On August 28, 2023, the Judge made a sarcastic statement on Twitter, "The Hindu community is facing imminent danger, and the need for alarm is pressing (Hindu khatre mein hai, alarm abhi jurorot ho gaya)." Following this, many of his old remarks were shared and discussed on social media and in response, the Judge tweeted on September 4, "My maximum friends are from Hindu Community", before limiting access to the public to his Twitter account.
The Judge had in November 2021 targeted the Indian Army through his posts. "Indian army posted in Kashmir are communal #Kashmir Lives Matter", he had said. Additionally, Judge Rahman raised concerns about the impartiality of the Indian armed forces deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, asserting, "Sometimes the army is not neutral. I faced it in Kashmir, visiting for the 1st time as a university student." He had also said that he is with "Kashmiri fighters", in a tweet of November 17, 2021.
On February 23, 2020, he tweeted, "Bramins run". On June 30, 2023, he claimed that as a Judge he has seen the "crime graph" and that "greatest defaulters in repayment of loans..its Hindus, see the rape graph, it is Hindus.."
Judge Rahman has also wrongly claimed that India exports cow meat, commonly known as beef, to Gulf countries and that Hindus are the primary players in this trade.
In another instance, he asked a Hindu handle on Twitter, "why have you kept sex slaves in Brindaban?" He has claimed on Twitter that the killing of Atiq Ahmed is "Hindu Terrorism". He had also tweeted that "Now spiritual gurus are potential rapists".
The Assistant Session Judge does not even spare Judges of the Supreme Court. Expressing his angst about the Ayodhya Judgment of the Apex Court, he attacked Justice S. Abdul Nazeer by saying that Justice Nazeer "destroyed the backbone of Judiciary by giving verdict in favour of Ram Temple, where there was no evidence".
On September 4, the same day he claimed that maximum of his friends are from the Hindu community, he announced on Twitter that he is being considered for the position of additional district judge/ district judge.
In 2015, while Judge Rehman was serving as a Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, he had approached the Gauhati High Court seeking a promotion. The judgment in the case disclosed that in ACRs of 2009 and 2010 Judge Rehman was graded "good" while in the year 2011, he was graded as "average" with the remark "integrity: doubtful". After he submitted a representation to the High Court in 2012 for the expunction of adverse remark in the ACR for the year 2011, the remark "integrity: doubtful" was expunged while the grading of "average" and the other remark were left undisturbed.
Although Judge Rahman's Twitter account is now locked from the public, It has come out in the media that he is followed by the Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale.