New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) A plea was filed in a court here on Wednesday against Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar over his statement during a meeting with workers of BJP's Kisan Morcha on October 3, in which he allegedly asked the party members to stand up against protesting farmers.
The petition alleged that as per the video of the meeting, the CM was asking party workers to make "500-600-1,000 volunteers" in every district of north and west Haryana, and be ready to "face sticks, imprisonment", which will make them "big leaders".
In the plea filed before Sachin Gupta, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Rouse Avenue Court, complainant Advocate Amit Sahni, contended that the link of the CM's meeting with partymen was live on YouTube.
However, after the portion of his controversial remarks went viral on social media, the video was taken off, but it was broadcast by several persons connected with the Chief Minister Office, Haryana.
The video is still available on various social platforms and news websites, the petitioner said.
"The contents of the videos make it abundantly clear that the accused has committed offence under sections 109, 153, 153A and 505 IPC by giving provocation with intent to cause riot, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony and making statements conducing to public mischief under section 109, 153, 153 A, 505 IPC," the plea stated.
Pointing out a series of related events, the plea said that earlier Haryana IAS officer Ayush Sinha made a controversial statement to "break heads" of farmers.
It also highlighted the controversial incident that took place during Khattar's 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' in 2019 as part of his campaign in the run-up to the Haryana assembly elections, in which he was allegedly heard saying "I will chop your head off," in a viral video.
Quoting "Be ye never so high, the law is above you", the words of English Judge Lord Denning, the petitioner said that no one is above the law and that the law applies to everyone equally, regardless of anyone's rank or position.
He trashed allegations that the Border Security Force (BSF) would take over the state's administration or will be deployed in the Golden Temple, and said such misconceptions were being spread by certain people to score brownie points in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
Accusing the BJP of only serving the corporates, he said the BJP government is committed to serve the industrialists who have already set up silos and other infrastructure because of the farm laws.
Claiming that the Delhi government has not withheld a single penny from the MCD, he alleged that the BJP has used its revenues earned from toll tax and advertisements for "illegal purposes". He also said that the saffron party has floated a tender for medicines, which cannot be procured before December.
An indication in this regard came on Tuesday when his media advisor Raveen Thukral extended an invite to the media for Amarinder Singh's press briefing in Chandigarh.
Concerned over the manner in which Bollywood is being "targeted" by the Narcotics Control Bureau for the past over one year, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will write to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue, Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik said on Tuesday.
After examining the plea, an order was passed by a bench of Justices A.G. Masih and A.K. Verma to enable the prosecuting agency to proceed as per law, an official statement quoting the office of Advocate General A.P.S. Deol said.
