The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday quashed two different FIRs registered against BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas. A bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara heard the petitions separately and passed two separate orders. On April 6, 2022, Bagga had moved the high court seeking the quashing of an FIR registered against him on the complaint of AAP Punjab spokesperson and Lok Sabha in-charge, Dr Sunny Singh Ahluwalia. The complaint referred to a statement allegedly made by Bagga and said it constituted instigation/incitement to cause violence, use of force or imminent hurt to Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP members in a pre-designed, well-planned and orchestrated manner. The Punjab Police had booked Bagga under various charges, including promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, etc., doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony and making statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes, among others, of the Indian Penal Code. Seeking that the FIR be quashed, senior advocates R S Rai and Chetan Mittal with advocates Mayank Aggarwal and Gautam Dutt, appearing for Bagga, had contended that the registration of the FIR was wholly malafide. Ahluwalia intentionally concealed the actual statement and referred only to some parts of it to get the FIR registered, they said. “There is nothing in the statement which would constitute any offence. There is no intimidation or incitement to violence…the statement has to be appreciated in the context in which it is made. It is only intended to convey that till Kejriwal apologises for his statement which was considered objectionable by the petitioner, protests and demonstrations against him would continue,” the counsel for Bagga further contended. In a separate petition, Vishwas had moved the high court on April 26, seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the Punjab Police for allegedly giving inflammatory statements against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, among other charges. On April 12, the Rupnagar police booked Vishwas under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to promoting enmity between groups, criminal conspiracy, publishing or circulating news with intent to create enmity on the grounds of religion or race, etc. on the complaint of Narinder Singh. Seeking that the FIR be quashed, his counsel, senior advocates Chetan Mittal and R S Rai along with advocates Mayank Aggarwal and Rubina Virmani, said that he is a Hindi poet, a founder-member of AAP and a former member of its national executive body. Vishwas said he was wrongly involved in the FIR and that it was sheer abuse of the process of law and alleged that it was politically motivated.
