Chandigarh: A political turmoil has erupted in Punjab after the police registered cases against ex-Aam Aadmi Party leader Dr. Kumar Vishwas and Congress leader Alka Lamba for 'inflammatory statements' against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during the assembly elections.
The FIR has been registered in the Ropar district following a complaint by an AAP worker. Kumar Vishwas and Alka Lamba have been asked to appear in person at Ropar Sadar police station on April 26 at 10 am in front of a three-member SI team headed by Chief Superintendent of Police HS Atwal. It has been learned that the FIR has been registered on April 12 with police citing the February 16 statement by Vishwas to a news channel where he linked Kejriwal with Khalistanis.
Lamba has been accused of making similar allegations against the Delhi CM. The move by the Punjab police has been met with sharp criticism by the opposition parties which have charged the AAP with a political vendetta. The opposition also accused Kejriwal of meddling with Punjab affairs. Chief Minister of Punjab has become his puppet, the opposition alleged.
Questions are being raised as to why the Punjab government is dragging the Punjab police in the case of Vishwas's statement against Kejriwal. Punjab Congress has come out in support of Alka Lamba and Kumar Vishwas. Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Wading and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Pratap Singh Bajwa have written a letter to the DGP asking him to drop the cases.
While former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu said that he will meet Kumar Vishwas and Alka Lamba on April 26 for dinner. The Punjab Congress also threatened protests in case the cases are not dropped. Punjab BJP general secretary Jeevan Gupta said in a statement that the Aam Aadmi Party government had also registered a false case against two BJP workers from Mohali and one from Delhi on the basis of social media posts.
He accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of “strangling independence and democracy”. Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Balwinder Singh Kang while reacting to the FIRs against Vishwas and Lamba, tweeted that he was “surprised to see that all the Congressmen have come to the rescue of BJP leader Kumar Vishwas. After all, Congressmen love BJP leaders so much."
Meanwhile, Chetan Mittal, a legal expert and senior advocate at the Chandigarh High Court said that the manner in which the FIR has been registered is a “shocking thing in itself”. He said the sections invoked in the cases are applicable for mutual disputes or some kind of tension between two communities. He said that the High Court had recently taken cognizance of one such case. "The case against Alka Lamba and Kumar Vishwas appears to have been politically motivated," he added.
The advocate also said that the manner in which the case is being handled makes it clear that technically and legally it is only a case of defamation.
