FIR against Kapil Mishra in accordance with law, says Punjab DGP

The Punjab DGP, in his reply said, said that the FIR was registered following a complaint from a Jalandhar resident who alleged that on January 7, he noticed video clips on social media in which Atishi was allegedly shown to be making derogatory remarks against Sikh Gurus. It was alleged that the original video of the speech, later uploaded on the official social media account of Atishi, did not feature any such derogatory remarks, making it clear that the video clips were edited to present a manipulated version of the original speech, hurt religious sentiments and provoke communal tension.

The DGP said the widely circulated video clip was forwarded to the State Forensic Science Laboratory, SAS Nagar (Mohali) for examination. “Since the matter was sensitive in nature, the forensic examination was conducted on priority. The report said that the word ‘Guru’ was not uttered by the speaker of the audio extracted from the video file under examination,” read the DGP’s reply.

“Jalandhar Commissionerate Police has acted in accordance with law, upon receipt of a written complaint by a local resident, which duly disclosed commission of cognisable offences. In terms of the settled law in this regard, it may be appreciated that the jurisdictional Police Officer is duty-bound to register an FIR if the information/allegations furnished before him disclose commission of any cognizable offence,” according to the DGP’s reply.

In his reply, the DGP also questioned the issue of legislative privilege of Assembly stating that the privilege afforded by the Constitution is limited to liability in respect of publication “by or under the authority of a house of..a legislature”.

“In the present case, the clips in respect of which the FIR have been registered have obviously not been published by or under the authority of the house. Further, the privilege, if any, extends only to protect the member of the House who has spoken on the floor of the house. In this case, that is Atishi, the Hon’ble Leader of the Opposition However, no FIR has been registered against her at all for her speech inside the house, but against unknown miscreants who have sought to manipulate and misuse her speech outside the House,” the DGP said.

He clarified that the FIR intends to investigate as to whether any part of the said speech, as originally made, constitutes an offence. “However, it is reiterated that the offences being investigated by the Jalandhar Police Commissionerate comprise of a set of acts which have been committed outside the Assembly by unknown persons…,” he said, adding, “the genesis of the alleged offences being investigated…is the act of clipping/ cropping of a video-clip and subjecting it to alleged digital tampering by imposition of offending subtitles thereon”.

The DGP further said that the investigative accountability of the Punjab Police under Sections 173, 176 and 193 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS) is exclusively to the concerned Judicial Magistrate and the competent courts. “No provision of the BNSS or any other statute grants oversight or control to any legislature, leave alone any extra-territorial jurisdiction over police force of another State on matters that have the direct potential to impact the law and order in that state,” he said.

The DGP also said that any investigating responsibility of the Police is to the Courts and any attempt to stop these investigations from any other corner is going to be violative of the Rules of the Assembly itself that require that matters within the domain of the courts be not taken up by the assembly.

The DGP further pointed out that Punjab shares its border with Pakistan and has had a “long and painful history of cross-border terrorism as well as internal disturbances”, which often have religious undertones. Thus, such offences, committed in the domain of social media, resulting in rapid and far-reaching viewership, have the tendency to seriously jeopardize the law and order situation in the state.

“Therefore, it is critical for the State Police to act against all such offences promptly, in order to prevent any serious disturbance to and breach of public peace and tranquility,” said the DGP.

He added that it is also necessary to mention that Public Order and Police are exclusive within List II of Schedule VII of the Constitution and all powers lie with the concerned state alone.

The DGP’s reply, submitted on January 21, was on Thursday forwarded via the Punjab government’s Department of Home Affairs. Jalandhar police commissioner Dhanpreet Kaur too has filed a reply similar to that of the DGP.