HC quashes FIRs against Tajinder Bagga, Kumar Vishwas in Punjab

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday quashed two separate FIRs registered against BJP's Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and former AAP leader Kumar Vishwas by the Punjab Police over their statements against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Giving a clean chit to the two leaders, the court observed that there cannot be any democracy without freedom of choice and free speech.

Opposition parties in Punjab - Congress, SAD and the BJP - said it was a "huge embarrassment" for AAP convenor Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and a "serious indictment" against the way Punjab Police was functioning under AAP's rule.

Elated with the ruling, Bagga termed it as the ''victory of truth'' and the ''defeat of Kejriwal'' while Vishwas advised Punjab Chief Minister Mann to protect the self-respect of Punjab from narrow-minded people.

Justice Anoop Chitkara said that the court's non-interference in Vishwas' case would result in a miscarriage of justice, while the continuation of criminal proceedings against Bagga shall amount to an abuse of the process of law.

The judge invoked Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which preserves the inherent powers of the High Court to prevent abuse of the process of any court or to secure the ends of justice, and issued two separate orders to quash the FIRs that were registered in April.

Vishwas, who is a well-known poet too, was booked by the Rupnagar police in Punjab for allegedly making "inflammatory statements" against Kejriwal on news channels and social media platforms that linked the AAP leader to separatist elements.

Bagga was booked on charges of making provocative statements, promoting enmity and criminal intimidation following a protest outside the Delhi residence of Aam Aadmi Party convener for his remarks on the film 'Kashmir Files.

Bagga's case hogged the limelight after a Punjab Police team went to arrest the BJP leader from his residence in Delhi. But it was stopped by the Haryana police at Kurukshetra while he was being taken to Punjab. He was brought back to the national capital by Delhi Police hours later. These developments had triggered a political slugfest.