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Punjab Congress leader Bajwa moves high court after FIR in ‘50 bombs’ claim
HC to take up plea on Wednesday. FIR was registered against leader of opposition in Mohali cyber police station on Sunday after he failed to establish source of his claim to a TV channel that 50 grenades had entered Punjab, of which 18 had exploded, while 32 remained active.
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Leader of opposition and Congress MLA Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday moved the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking quashing of the FIR against him by the Mohali police on allegations of providing misleading information with the intention to disturb peace by claiming that 50 bombs have reached the border state.
The petition was filed on Tuesday morning and a mentioning seeking urgent hearing was made by the former advocate general Punjab, APS Deol. After the mentioning, he said, the petition has been allowed to be taken up by the high court on Wednesday.
According to Deol, Bajwa has alleged in the petition that the FIR arises out of “political vendetta unleashed by the state”.
“No such statement that could create any kind of misinformation or lead to unrest was made by the petitioner. In fact, this statement is made in the interest of peace of the state so that such incidents do not occur again,” Deol told reporters at the high court.
The FIR was registered against Bajwa in Mohali on Sunday night by the police claiming that he failed to establish the source of his claim to a TV channel that 50 grenades had entered Punjab, of which 18 had already exploded, while 32 remained active and unexploded.
The FIR was registered on the complaint of a cyber police constable, who said that by making such a statement, Bajwa had intended to disturb public peace and tranquility, creating a sense of fear, ill will, and enmity among different communities.
Bajwa was booked under Sections 197(1)(d) (false and misleading information that endangers the country’s sovereignty and unity) and 353(2) (false statements intend to create enmity and hatred or ill will), a non-bailable offence, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the cybercrime police station in Phase-7, Mohali, on Sunday night.
Section 353(2) of the BNS, which deals with false statements intended to create enmity or hatred, is non-bailable. This means that an individual arrested under this section cannot be released on bail before a court hearing. The section also specifies a punishment of imprisonment for up to three years, or with fine, or with both.
Following Bajwa’s ‘50 bombs’ claim, chief minister Bhagwant Mann had ordered an investigation. Intelligence officers AIG Ravjot Kaur and SP Harbir Singh Atwal visited Bajwa’s house in Chandigarh for an inquiry, but said later that the Congress leader failed to cooperate, which led to the filing of the FIR and subsequent summons. Bajwa also failed to appear before the cybercrime police station in Phase 7, Mohali, on Monday.
