Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and poet Kumar Vishwas has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, seeking the quashing of a first information report (FIR) registered by Punjab Police in Rupnagar on April 12.
Also read: Top court pulls up Uttarakhand, says ‘ensure no hate speech’ at event tomorrow
The case against him was registered under sections of promoting enmity between groups, criminal conspiracy, publishing or circulating a news with intent to create enmity on the grounds of religion and race besides the Representation of People Act on the complaint of Narinder Singh.
The plea, which is yet to be taken up by the high court, alleges sheer abuse of the process of law and terms it politically motivated. “The FIR and the proceedings emanating there from are mala fide and a blatant attempt to breach the petitioner’s fundamental right of freedom to speech. The manner in which the investigating agency is proceeding, it is apparent that it is trying to curtail the liberty of the petitioner by adopting a procedure unknown to law,” it alleges.
The allegations are that Vishwas made provocative statements against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal in an interview, claiming his involvement with nefarious and anti-social elements. It was also alleged that Vishwas made statements during the course of the recent Punjab elections to create unrest and communal instability.
Vishwas has claimed that after the elections, the AAP came to power with a thumping majority and immediately thereafter, with a clear intent a series of complaints and FIRs have been registered against its political opponents just to harass them. The plea refers to FIRs against BJP leaders Navin Kumar, the media in-charge of Delhi BJP, Priti Gandhi, the BJP Mahila Morcha in-charge of Maharashtra, and Delhi BJP leader Tejinderpal Singh Bagga, all booked after the AAP came to power in Punjab.
“The FIR has been registered to wreck vengeance against political opponents,” the plea said.
