Court dismisses complaint seeking registration of FIR against Manish Sisodia in Jamia violence tweet case

A special court on Friday dismissed the complaint of Supreme Court lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava seeking registration of FIR against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for allegedly spreading fake news that Delhi Police personnel were setting a DTC bus on fire during Jamia violence.

A special court on Friday dismissed the complaint of Supreme Court lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava seeking registration of FIR against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Msh Sisodia for allegedly spreading fake news that Delhi Police personnel were setting a DTC bus on fire during Jamia violence.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja while dismissing the complaint stated: "There is no previous sanction obtained by the complainant from the competent authority to prosecute the respondent for the offences alleged in the complaint. Hence, in view of the settled position of law in l Kumar & Ors v MK Aiyappa and L Narayana Swamy v State of Karnataka and others application under section 156(3) of CrPC and the complaint deserves to be dismissed being not tenable in the eyes of law."

The court also noted the submissions made by the complainant that other sections are also mentioned in the complaint, prosecution of which does not require prior sanction. It is to be noted that complainant cannot circumvent the law by submitting that the partial complaint with respect to other sections can be considered. Section 504 IPC is a non-cognisable offence. The only other section left in the complaint is 153 IPC. The allegations made in the complaint does not even prima facie relate to ingredients required for attracting section 153 IPC. No cognizable offence prima facie made out as per contents of the complaint. Accordingly, on merits also the application, as well as the complaint, deserves to be dismissed.

Earlier, Delhi police in its action taken report had stated that no cognisable offence is made out against Msh Sisodia from the contents of his tweet. Msh Sisodia only tweeted his opinion on a video clip which was running on news channels, it added.

A criminal complaint was filed in December last year in special MP/MLA magistrate court in Delhi against Deputy Chief Minister Msh Sisodia for allegedly spreading fake news that Delhi Police personnel were setting a DTC bus on fire during Jamia violence. The complaint had sought registration of FIR against Sisodia under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and IT Act.

Sisodia had, on December 15, 2019, shared pictures and videos purportedly from Jamia Nagar in which police officers were seen carrying barrels and pouring liquid onto the DTC buses. He had alleged that the BJP had used the police to set buses on fire during the incident. At least three DTC buses were set on fire in the Bharat Nagar area of the national capital on December 15 after a demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) turned violent in the area.

( With inputs from ANI )