Pragya Thakur sends notice to cartoonist

Pragya Singh Thakur sent a legal notice to cartoonist Rachita Taneja for registering and blocking a domain name on the parliamentarian's name after the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

New Delhi: BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur Thursday send legal notice to cartoonist Rachita Taneja for registering and blocking domain name on the parliamentarian's name after the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The MP from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, has asked Taneja, a social media influencer, to immediately restrain, cease and desist from using the website/ domain name ‘www.pragyasinghthakur.com’.

The Supreme Court on December 18 had, separately, issued a show-cause notice to Taneja for her alleged scandalous tweets against the apex court.

The legal notice sent through a criminal lawyer and Advocate on Record Namit Saxena alleged that there has been a pattern in Taneja’s posts where she has deliberately named Thakur as a ‘terrorist’ which is a "contumacious and designed with the sole intention to malign the image" of the BJP leader.

The notice further alleged that Taneja’s intention is to create a narrative against Thakur so as to hamper her pending trial.

Thakur is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blasts case in which 10 people were killed and several injured. She is facing trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2017, she was granted bail on health grounds.

The legal notice states that Thakur was elected as a parliamentarian from Bhartiya Janta Party on May 24, 2019, and two weeks later on June 8, 2019, Rachita Taneja registered the domain name ‘www.pragyasinghthakur.com’.

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It alleged that Taneja in her social media handles has deliberately posted baseless content which portrays an incorrect image of the BJP leader.

Thakur, through her Delhi-based lawyer, has mentioned some of Taneja's posts in the legal notice to further allege that the intention behind this was to "orchestrate a motivated public hearing to obstruct the ongoing bench hearing against the MP and harass her".

"That the timeline on which these posts have been uploaded by you is extremely crucial as you wanted to create a narrative against my client to malign her reputation and goodwill immediately after my client’s election results. This is in line with concerted efforts made to jeopardize my client’s image amongst the society," Saxena said in the legal notice.

The BJP MP in the legal notice asked to show cause within seven days as to why and under what circumstances and with what intention did Taneja purchase/create/register/block the said domain name on June 8, 2019.

The politician asked the cartoonist to restrain from using the said website/domain name or any variant thereof in the name of Pragya Thakur.

The notice to Taneja said: "That in case you fail to comply with the terms of this notice, we shall be constrained to initiate appropriate legal proceedings, both civil and criminal, against you".

PTI