My X posts targeted rival parties, not community: Kapil Mishra to Delhi court

New Delhi: Delhi law minister Kapil Mishra, accused of publishing posts on his X handle to allegedly promote enmity between groups in 2020, on Tuesday said he was only targeting rival political parties, not a community.

Appearing before additional chief judicial magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasiya, Mishra's lawyer made the statement during the arguments on whether or not charges have to be framed against him in the case.

Mishra is accused of posting objectionable statements from his X handle on January 23, 2020, over the then Delhi legislative assembly elections.

Based on a complaint of the returning officer, an FIR was registered against him.

The judge previously took cognisance of the offence under Section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act.

The counsel for the BJP leader on Tuesday said he did not target any individual based on religion or language, but rather rival parties -- Congress and AAP.

"I've not targeted any community based on religion or language. My tweets don't target any community. I've only targeted the other two parties (Congress and AAP)," the lawyer said.

Mishra appeared before the court through video-conferencing.

Delhi Police, meanwhile, said it was making efforts to obtain report from X, formerly Twitter, in the matter.

"Report have been filed by DCP, North-West stating that efforts are being made to obtain report from Twitter (now X)... Part arguments heard on charge on behalf of senior counsel for the accused. Certain legal queries has been put to senior counsel for the accused to which adjournment has been sought and counsel submits that the assistance will be provided on the next date of hearing. Adjournment sought by senior counsel for the accused stands allowed," the judge said.

The court then posted the matter on charge on May 26.

A special court on March 7 dismissed Mishra's plea against summoning for making the "objectionable statements" and violating the model code of conduct in 2020.

The court said the Election Commission of India was under the constitutional obligation to prevent the candidates from indulging in "vitriolic vituperation with impunity, vitiating and contaminating the atmosphere for free and fair election".

Expressing "complete agreement" with the magisterial court, it said the complaint filed by the returning officer was sufficient to take cognisance of the offence under Section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act.

Mishra’s statements, the court said, appeared to be "a brazen attempt to promote enmity on the grounds of religion by way of indirectly referring to a country which unfortunately in common parlance is often used to denote the members of a particular religion".