Relief for Rahul Gandhi as Allahabad HC rejects plea to register FIR in ‘fighting Indian state’ remark

Lucknow: In a major relief to former Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, the Allahabad High Court on Friday rejected a plea to register an FIR against him over his alleged controversial ‘fighting the Indian state’ remark.

A single bench comprising Justice Vikram D Chauhan pronounced his decision in an open court while dismissing a petition challenging the decision of a district court in Sambhal to reject a plea for registration of a criminal case against Rahul over the alleged remark on the ground that the petition lacked merit among others.

The petition was filed by Simran Gupta who had contended that the Congress leader’s remark was ‘seditious’ and against the integrity and sovereignty of the country.

The HC had earlier reserved its judgement after hearing the concerned parties.

According to the petitioner, Rahul had made the alleged statement while speaking on the occasion of inauguration of the Congress headquarter ‘Indira Bhavan’ in Delhi in January last year.

The petition claimed that Rahul had said that his party’s fight was now not confined only to fighting the BJP and RSS and that their fight was now against the ‘Indian state’ along with the BJP and RSS as the latter had ‘captured’ every institution in the country.

A plea was initially filed in the MP/MLA court in Sambhal seeking registration of an FIR but the court rejected it stating lack of jurisdiction. The applicant then approached the court of the district judge, who also rejected it stating that the case was ‘weak’.