Court seeks 'action taken' report on complaint against IAC, Kejriwal

A Delhi court on Monday asked police to file an action-taken report on a plea for lodging an FIR against NGO India Against Corruption and its three members for making “baseless” and “defamatory” allegations against President Pranab Mukherjee.

Metropolitan magistrate Ambika Singh asked police to submit to it by September 3 its ATR on a complaint by Rajiv Khosla, who alleged that India Against Corruption member Arvind Kejriwal levelled abusive and frivolous allegations against the President during their recent demonstration in support of the Jan Lokpal Bill.

Khosla, in his plea against Kejriwal, IAC and its two other members Manish Sisodia and Gopal Rai, said they started their demonstration on July 25 this year, the same day Mukherjee was sworn in as President.

Referring to media reports, he said when Mukherjee was sworn in, Kejriwal made an “open statement” against his integrity.

“It is pertinent to mention here that the statement made by one of the IAC members was not an end itself but an initiation of baseless, abusive, defamatory, malafide and frivolous allegations,” said Khosla in his plea filed through advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal.

He said that during the demonstration, he found IAC members distributing pamphlets in which charges of corruption were levelled against the President and he was alleged to be an enemy of the Jan Lokpal Bill.

“It is submitted that by making allegations against the President, members of IAC are instigating a feeling of hatred and disgrace against the post of the President among the general public, which is contemptuous and in violation of Article 361 of the Constitution,” the complaint said.