2021 ‘Toolkit’ Tweet: Petty Political Ideological Tussle Shows Malafide On Part Of Complainant- Chhattisgarh HC Quashes Case Against BJP Leaders Raman Singh & Sambit Patra
|The Chhattisgarh High Court has quashed an FIR against BJP leaders Raman Singh (former Union Minister and Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh) and Sambit Patra (member and national spokesperson of BJP) in a case relating to the 2021 ‘Toolkit’ tweet. It said that the petty political ideological tussle shows malafide on part of the complainant i.e., Akash Sharma, State President of National Student Union of India (NSUI).
The Court was deciding a batch of two writ petitions filed by the aforesaid BJP leaders who had challenged the FIR registered against them by Akash Sharma. The petitioners had in 2021 criticized the ‘Congress Toolkit’ in the twitter post/tweet when the country was battling with pandemic i.e., COVID-19 virus.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice N.K. Chandravanshi held, “From perusal of the FIR, it can be safely held that no offence whatsoever is made out against the petitioners. Hence, this Court cannot permit the same to be proceeded with. The respondent No. 4 has tried to rope the petitioners as well as one Union Minister and other functionaries of the BJP on a petty political ideological tussle, which shows the malafide on the part of the said respondent as after lodging of the FIR, he has not cared to put forth his version in support of the FIR, before this Court.”
The Bench said that in this case, posting/tweeting a message which is more in the form of a political gossip, has been tried to be given a shape of an act of spreading fake news and inciting of violence.
Senior Advocates Mahesh Jethmalani and Ajay Burman appeared for Raman Singh and Sambit Patra (petitioners) while Advocate General S.C. Verma and AAG Chandresh Shrivastava appeared for the respondents.
Factual Background -
On May 18, 2021 the petitioners came to know from the public domain that the Indian National Congress Party (INC/Congress) had prepared a document titled "Cornering Narendra Modi & BJP on COVID Mismanagement” with instructions to embarrass and tarnish the image of the Central Government and the BJP. Such document was popularly known as a "Congress Toolkit” and contained statements such as "Use the phrase 'Indian strain whenever talking of the new mutant Social media volunteers may call it “Modi strain". As per various respectable media reports, including a report in 'India Today’, the said Congress Toolkit was first posted on Twitter i.e., in the public domain by a Twitter handle of one ‘Team Bharat’.
The petitioners were immensely distressed and pained to see that at a time when the entire country was facing an unprecedented pandemic, the Congress Party was still only focused on misleading the people of the country for political gain. Raman Singh tweeted in Hindi and the same is translated in English as follows:
“In this time of Corona Crisis, it is shameful to see the below the belt politics of Congress. To discredit the country in the foreign media, @ INC India is conspiring propagate Kumbh and show photos of corpses. Instead of fighting against epidemic, Congress is provoking people to fight amongst each other #Congress ToolkitExposed."
On the same day, Samit Patra published a message on his twitter handle which reads as follows:
“Friends look at the #CongressToolkit in extending help to the needy during the Pandemic!
More of a PR exercise with the help of ‘Friendly Journalists’ & ‘Influencers’ than a soulful endeavor.
Read for yourselves the agenda of the Congress:
#CongressToolKitExposed”
Sambit Patra tweeted the aforesaid message along with the images of pages from the ‘Congress Toolkit’. Soon thereafter, the complainant Akash Sharma (NSUI State President) filed a complaint against the petitioners which was not taken on record and hence, he filed an improved complaint. Thereafter, a complaint was also filed in Delhi by two members of the Congress Party seeking lodging of FIR against the petitioners and several other senior leaders of BJP. In the meanwhile, as the Delhi Police was conducting a preliminary enquiry, the complaint made to the Delhi Police was suddenly withdrawn by the complainants on the plea that the Chhattisgarh Police had already lodged an FIR. Hence, the matter was before the High Court.
The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel for parties observed, “In Neeharika Infrastructure (supra) also, guidelines have been provided to the Courts with regard to when the Courts may interfere with the FIR. There is no absolute bar in quashing of the FIR rather condition No. (iii) above clearly provides that in cases where no cognizable offence or offence of any kind is disclosed in the first information report that the Court will not permit an investigation to go on; and condition No. (x) provides that save in exceptional cases where non- interference would result in miscarriage of justice, the Court and the judicial process should not interfere at the stage of investigation of offences.”
The Court noted that the reliance placed by the Advocate General on the decision in the case of Ashok Chaturvedi [WP(Cr) No. 273 of 2020], is of no help to the respondent/State as the issue involved in that case related to anti-corruption and commission of economic offence which is entirely different from the facts of the present case and as such, the case is distinguishable on facts.
“… we are of the considered opinion that the impugned FIR bearing Crime No. 0215 of 2021, dated 19.05.2021 for the offences in question, registered at Police Station, Civil Lines, Raipur, District Raipur and all the consequential proceedings, if any, in respect of the petitioners and others, deserve to be and is accordingly quashed. Since the learned counsel for the petitioners have confined these petitions only to quashing of the FIR, we do not wish to pass any order with respect to other reliefs as prayed for by the petitioners”, concluded the Court.
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the writ petitions and quashed the case against the petitioners.
Cause Title- Dr. Raman Singh v. State of Chhattisgarh & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2023:CGHC:23349-DB)