Will continue fight against hate politics' without being deterred by arrest or jail: Zafarul Khan

Delhi Minorities Commission chairman Zafarul Islam Khan, who was booked by the Delhi Police under sedition charges for a controversial social media post, on Sunday asserted that he will continue his fight against "hate politics" without being deterred by arrest or jail.

He also said that it was "erroneously" reported by a section of media that he had deleted his tweet in question, saying he stood by its content.

"I will continue, now and in future, the fight against hate politics in the country. FIRs, arrests and imprisonments do not change this path which I have chosen for myself consciously years ago to save my country, my people, the Indian secular polity and the Constitution," Khan said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

An FIR was registered against Khan on April 30 under section 124 A (sedition) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth) after police received a complaint by a resident of Vasant Kunj.

In the FIR, the complainant alleged that Khan's post was "provocative", "deliberate" and seditious and intended to cause disharmony and create a rift in the society, police said, adding that the case is being investigated by the cyber cell.

The controversy erupted after Khan thanked Quwait in a tweet on last Tuesday for taking note of the "persecution" of Indian Muslims and shared a Facebook post which led the BJP to slam him and demanded his removal from the post of the Delhi Minorities Commission chairman.

Khan, who had tendered an apology for his post, said he did so not because of its content, but because it was "ill-timed and insensitive" in the midst of a medical emergency faced by the country.