Rahul Gandhi dual-citizenship row | Allahabad High Court orders FIR against Congress leader

Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday ordered for registration of an FIR against former Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in the dual citizenship matter.

A single bench comprising Justice Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order while allowing a petition filed by Karnataka BJP worker Shishir Vignesh challenging the order of the special MP/MLA Court which had, in January this year, rejected his petition seeking revocation of Rahul’s Indian citizenship and registration of an FIR against the Congress leader, who he claimed was also a British citizen.

The HC said in its order that the matter needed to be investigated and that the investigation might be conducted by the state government or by a central agency.

The lawyer for the state government said that the FIR would be registered at Kotwali police station in Raebareli from where Rahul was the member of Lok Sabha and also that it could be transferred to the CBI for investigation.

The court had earlier allowed the Centre to be impleaded as a party and conducted hearings in the matter several times in the chamber given the sensitive nature of the material placed before it.

Earlier in January this year, a special MP/MLA court here had rejected a petition seeking revocation of Congress leader’s Indian citizenship and registration of FIR against him.

The lower court had said that it did not have jurisdiction in the matter and also added that the petition was a misuse of the judicial process. It said that the court did not have the jurisdiction to decide citizenship or any issue concerning the same.

The petitioner Shishir Vignesh, a BJP leader from Karnataka, had contended that Rahul was a British citizen. He claimed that he was in possession of documents which supported his contention.

The petitioner had also sought registration of an FIR against Rahul under various sections of the IPC and the Official Secrets Act 1923 as well as revocation of his Indian citizenship.