Swamy says no inflammatory writing, gets HC breather

Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy was on Friday granted interim protection till January 30 by the Delhi high court against his possible arrest for writing an allegedly “inflammatory” article.

Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy was on Friday granted interim protection till January 30 by the Delhi high court against his possible arrest for writing an allegedly “inflammatory” article.

Justice ML Mehta granted interim protection to Swamy on an undertaking by him that he would not write such articles in the future and issued notice to the Delhi Police for its response on Swamy's anticipatory bail plea.

While hearing Swamy's plea, Justice Mehta observed, “We are a secular country and we should respect the system which we have.”

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The court said, “It is not a European country like Britain. We have a diversity and we should be proud of it.

“If you (Swamy) give an undertaking that you will not write anything based on the book, I'll grant you the relief,” the judge said.

The court's observation came after Swamy's counsel, senior advocate KTS Tulsi, argued that as he (Swamy) had exposed 2G scam against the government, this case has been lodged to harass him.

The counsel also said Swamy had written the article based on a book, which he was written six years ago, but no untoward incident had happened after that and the police registered a case against him soon after he exposed the 2G scam.

Swamy had moved the HC on Thursday seeking anticipatory bail in the case filed against him in October last year by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police for writing an article in a newspaper in July last year which, it said, tended to spread communal enmity.