Fake Toolkit Case Against BJP Leaders- Supreme Court Refused To Grant Relief To The Chhattisgarh Government

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant any relief to the Chhattisgarh Government in the appeal filed by it against the order of the High Court staying investigation on an FIR against BJP leader and former Chief Minister Raman Singh and party's spokesperson Sambit Patra for circulating an alleged 'Fake Toolkit' on Tweeter.

The Chhattisgarh government had filed two separate appeals against orders of the High Court granting a stay on investigation in an FIR registered against the BJP leaders. Let the Chhattisgarh High Court decide the case, the Bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli said.

The BJP leaders had tweeted a Toolkit allegedly created by the Congress party for maligning and tarnishing the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for alleged mismanagement of the Corona pandemic situation. However, Congress termed it fake and its leaders lodged complaints against Patra and other BJP leaders in different police stations.

The Bench said that the present cases cannot be granted separate treatment as there are many cases pertaining to the toolkit issue that are pending in various High Courts. We are not inclined to entertain the Special Leave Petitions. We dismiss the SLPs, the Bench said when senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for the State, wanted to refer to records of the case.

However, the Bench requested the Chhattisgarh High Court to decide expeditiously the pleas related to the fake toolkit case, clarifying that the matters be decided without being influenced by earlier observations.

The Chhattisgarh High Court, on June 11, passed two separate orders and granted interim reliefs in the FIR lodged against Singh and Patra while noting that the averments in the FIR reflected that by the tweets, Congressmen are aggravated, which clearly indicates that no public peace or tranquility is being adversely affected and it is purely political rivalry between two political parties.

On May 19, an FIR was lodged at the Civil Lines police station in Raipur based on the complaint of Akash Sharma, the President of the National Students' Union of India's (NSUI) Chhattisgarh unit, with the allegation that Singh, Patra and others had circulated fabricated content on social media platforms using a fake letterhead of the Congress by projecting it as a toolkit developed by the Party. It was alleged that by the act, the BJP leaders have circulated fake news and promoted enmity between classes.

With PTI inputs