Varun moves SC,challenges detention under NSA

BJPs Pilibhit candidate Feroz Varun Gandhi on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court to challenge his detention under the National Security Act...

BJPs Pilibhit candidate Feroz Varun Gandhi on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court to challenge his detention under the National Security Act for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches last month. The entire exercise on the part of the Mayawati Government was malafide,perverse and smacks of arbitrariness and capriciousness and intended to sabotage his electoral debut,Gandhi has claimed.

Agreeing to an unlisted submission by senior advocate Mukuk Rohtagi for the BJP leader,the Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan allowed him to file the petition later in the day and ensured it was taken up for an urgent hearing on Thursday itself.

Seeking a direction for his forthwith release,the petition of the BJPs candidate from Pilibhit claimed that the entire attempt is a combined effort of the District Magistrate,Pilibhit and UP government to ensure that the petitioner is not able to contest and campaign for the General Elections scheduled for next month so as to sabotage the electoral debut of the petitioner.

The said detention order and grounds supplied are bad in law and have been passed with political motivations, accused Gandhi who has arraigned the Pilibhit DM and the Standing Counsel of State as parties in his petition.

The petition,filed through advocate Sandeep Kapoor of a leading law firm,Karanjawala,sought quashing of the DMsorder invoking Section 32 of NSA for allegedly making inflammatory statements and causing a breach of public order when he went to Pilibhit to surrender on March 28 in cases registered against him for his communal speeches during the campaign.

The petition also alleges that Gandhi was detained under NSA as the state believed that he would be released on bail in cases registered against him for the alleged hate speeches. It is obvious that the detention order is to overcome the grant of bail.