Raja Singh acquitted in 2022 Prophet Muhammad remarks case

Singh's remarks had sparked protests across Old City, with large crowds gathering at Shalibanda and other areas to demand his arrest.

Hyderabad: The Special Court for MP/MLA cases here on Tuesday, June 30, acquitted Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh in the 2022 case registered at Mangalhat police station over his remarks against Prophet Muhammad.

Singh had posted a video on YouTube on the night of August 22, 2022, in which he made derogatory comments about the Prophet and also targeted comedian Munawar Faruqui and his mother, later calling the video “comedy.” He posted it days after the Telangana government allowed Faruqui to perform in Hyderabad, a show Singh had tried to disrupt.

The video sparked protests across the Old City throughout the night, with large crowds gathering at Shalibanda and other areas to demand his arrest. Clashes between protestors and police left a sub-inspector and at least three others injured, shops across several markets downed shutters, and effigies of Singh were burnt.

The BJP suspended him from the party over the remarks. Singh was first arrested and briefly released on a technicality, then re-arrested days later and detained under the Preventive Detention Act, spending 77 days in jail before being granted bail. He was eventually booked in eight cases by the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police over the episode.

According to Singh’s defence team, the prosecution’s case unravelled on technical and evidentiary grounds during trial. The complainant and a second prosecution witness reportedly acknowledged that the narration of the Prophet’s marriage to Aisha appears in hadith collections including Sahih al-Bukhari, and that a Quranic verse (Surah Al-Ahzab, 33:37) refers to his marriage to Zaynab following her separation from Zayd.

The investigating officer is also said to have admitted he had not verified whether the statements drew on recognised religious sources before filing the charge sheet, while the prosecution’s own forensic expert reportedly flagged discontinuities in the video evidence and gaps in its chain of custody.

These claims, made by Singh’s lawyers in a statement after the verdict, point to evidentiary and procedural shortfalls in the prosecution’s case rather than any judicial finding on whether Singh’s framing of the material was itself derogatory or unlawful.

Singh has faced more than 40 cases across police stations in the city over the years for hurting Muslim sentiments and has been acquitted in most of them.

Following the verdict, Singh said it affirmed his four-year legal battle and his faith in the judiciary, and thanked his supporters and lawyers for standing by him through the proceedings.