New Delhi: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday rejected two different FIRs registered against BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas.
A bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara passed two separate orders after hearing the petitions separately.
On April 6, 2022, Bagga had moved the high court seeking the dismissal of an FIR registered against him on the complaint of AAP Punjab spokesperson and Lok Sabha in-charge, Dr Sunny Singh Ahluwalia.
Allegations on Bagga
The complaint referred to a statement allegedly made by Bagga and said it constituted instigation to cause violence, use of force or imminent hurt to Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP members in a pre-designed, well-planned and orchestrated manner.
The Punjab Police had booked Bagga under many charges, including promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, etc., doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony and making statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes, among others, of the Indian Penal Code.
Seeking FIR dismissal
Seeking that the FIR be dismissed, senior advocates RS Rai and Chetan Mittal with advocates Mayank Aggarwal and Gautam Dutt, appearing for Bagga, had contended that the registration of the FIR was wholly malafide. Ahluwalia concealed the actual statement and referred only to some parts of it to get the FIR registered, they said.
“There is nothing in the statement which would constitute any offence. There is no intimidation or incitement to violence…the statement has to be appreciated in the context in which it is made. It is only intended to convey that till Kejriwal apologises for his statement which was considered objectionable by the petitioner, protests and demonstrations against him would continue,” the counsel for Bagga further contended.
In a separate petition, Vishwas had moved the high court on April 26, seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the Punjab Police for allegedly giving inflammatory statements against AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, among other charges.
On April 12, the Rupnagar police booked Vishwas under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to promoting enmity between groups, criminal conspiracy, publishing or circulating news with intent to create enmity on the grounds of religion or race, etc. on the complaint of Narinder Singh.
