AAP leader Dilip Pandey and two other party members were Saturday sent to 14 days’ judicial custody by a court here on charges of promoting enmity between different communities.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sheetal Chaudhary sent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members Pandey, Ram Kumar Jha and Javed Khan to judicial custody till Aug 2.
Rejecting the charge, the AAP described the allegations as a “bundle of lies” and said its members were arrested on trumped-up charges by police at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The court said there was enough material to show that the three leaders were involved in promoting enmity between different communities.
The AAP leader’s counsel admitted that Khan and Jha were involved due to their negligence but the involvement was not deliberate.
The counsel said Pandey had nothing to do with the matter and only a copy of an email that was sent to the printing press for publishing a pamphlet was marked for him.
The mail was not directly addressed to Pandey, he said.
The AAP counsel termed it a “politically motivated” case.
The prosecution told the court that Delhi was facing problems in the political field, and now this issue could instigate enmity between communities.
Pamphlets containing inflammatory remarks were affixed to different places deliberately by the three accused, the prosecution added.
The AAP members were called by police Friday for questioning in connection with the pasting of posters in Jamia Nagar area of south Delhi appealing to the Muslim community to lay siege to the houses of three Congress legislators of the same community for “shaking hands with the RSS and the BJP”. They were later arrested.
The AAP has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to woo the Congress legislators by offering them Rs.20 crore each to form the government in Delhi which is currently under president’s rule.
The AAP said Pandey and the others had nothing to do with the case and they were being framed.
“When a resident of Jamia Nagar, Amanatullah, has already told police that it was he who put up the posters out of anger against the Congress legislators… what is the point in arresting them?” AAP leader Deepak Vajpayee had told IANS.
The same point was reiterated by the AAP counsel in the court.
The prosecution said police was investigating the matter.
A case under section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered.
“The AAP will not be cowed down by such attempts and will continue to expose the BJP’s deeds. Misuse of police and framing of AAP activists in false cases will not help the BJP at all,” said a statement from the party.
Delhi BJP president Satish Updhyay said the AAP tried to “vitiate the communal harmony” earlier too.
