New Delhi: The Chhattisgarh high court has stayed the investigation by state police into the case filed against Bharatiya Janata Party national vice-president and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh and party spokesperson Sambit Patra in connection with the alleged Congress fake toolkit case, Bar and Bench reported.
The FIR against Singh and Patra was filed by state president of Congress’s students’ wing National Student Union of India (NSUI), Akash Sharma, who alleged that Singh, Patra and some others had circulated a fabricated toolkit on COVID-19 using a forged letterhead of the Congress. Following this, Singh sought quashing of the FIR registered against him.
While hearing Singh’s plea, the bench of Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas observed that the FIR was lodged out of “malafides and political grudge” and that allowing the investigation to continue will be “nothing but an abuse of law”.
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According to the report, the FIR against Singh was registered under IPC sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (public mischief), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).
“If we see the face value of FIR, no offence under Sections 504 and 505 of IPC is made out as the averments of the FIR reflect that by the tweet of the petitioner, Congressmen are aggravated which clearly indicates that no public peace or tranquility is being adversely affected,” the court said, as per Bar and Bench.
The court said that since the document was already in public domain much before the petitioner tweeted the message, the offence of forgery for the purpose of harming reputation under section 469 is not made out.
Regarding section 188, the court noted that there was no compliance with section 195 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which lays down conditions for prosecution for contempt of lawful authority of public servants.
As per an NDTV report, Singh in his plea argued that the “toolkit” matter is being investigated by Delhi Police and that he is not the author of the documents. The plea also contended that no offence is made out under the sections relating to “insult with intent to provoke breach of peace”. He further said that this is a “political clash” between two rival parties and that the statement “falls within the ambit of freedom of speech”.
“…I am of the view that the petitioner has made out a strong case of grant of stay, as continuation of investigation on basis of FIR dated 19.05.2021 will be nothing but an abuse of process of law,” the judge said in the order, as per NDTV.
The court has granted interim relief to both Singh and Patra in the case, news agency ANI reported.
The court has also stayed the probe in the case till the next hearing. The matter will be heard after four weeks.