Delhi Court reserves order in plea seeking FIR against Rahul Gandhi for alleged sedition

The Court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Rouse Avenue Court Complex today reserved its order in a plea seeking registration of FIR against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for making allegedly seditious statements in the aftermath of the 2016 surgical strikes.

The order will be pronounced by Judge Samar Vishal on June 7.

The complaint made by advocate Joginder Tuli seeks a direction to the Delhi Police to register an FIR against Rahul Gandhi for allegedly making seditious statements and insulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016.

The allegedly defamatory statements were made by Rahul Gandhi in a speech on October 6, 2016 at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. As per the application,

“..on the said date, Sh. Rahul Gandhi made a statement in the said meeting against Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi accusing him of hiding behind the blood of soldiers and doing dalali (cashing in) on their sacrifice…Relevant extracts of his statement are reproduced as under:

Jo Hamare jawan hai, jinhone apna khoon diya hai Jammu Kashmir main…jinhone Hindustan ke liye surgical strike kiya hia, unke khoon ke peeche aap chhupe hue ho. Unki dalali kar rahe ho. Ye bikul galat hai. (Our soldiers who have shed their blood in Jammu and Kashmir, who have conducted the surgical strikes, you are hiding behind their blood. You are cashing in on their sacrifice, that’s wrong).”

It was the applicant’s grievance that the DCP (New Delhi) and SHO, Parliament Street did not register an FIR against Rahul Gandhi after he complained against the speech on October 10, 2016.

Arguing before the Court, Tuli today submitted that Gandhi’s statements resulted in dissatisfaction amongst army and paramilitary forces. It was also argued that Gandhi was using sacrifices of army personnel for political gain.

The Delhi Police, on the other hand, has maintained that no cognizable offence was made out in the sedition complaint against Gandhi for his speech.

As far as the insult to PM Modi was concerned, the Delhi Police stated that a defamation case could be initiated by the person against whom such an insult/statement was directed.

Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.