India, July 30 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and other AAP leaders on Chandigarh administration's plea against the quashing of a 2020 riots case by the high court. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notices to Mann and Aam Aadmi Party leaders Harpal Singh Cheema, Gurmeet Singh, Meet Hayer, Baljinder Kaur, Aman Arora and others. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said that it was a case of unlawful assembly and force was deployed, resulting in commission of a cognisable offence, but the high court quashed it in a "totally perverse order." The bench, after hearing arguments of Raju, issued notices to Mann and others. On July 21, the top court orally observed that there was no allegation that the accused, including Mann, had "exhorted" a crowd protesting against the hike in electricity tariffs in Chandigarh in 2020.
The high court had earlier held that no prima facie case was made out against the AAP leaders and the ingredients of the offences invoked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were absent. It consequently quashed the FIR and the chargesheet registered under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from duty), and 353 (assault or criminal force) of the IPC. The FIR was registered in 2020 on the complaint of constable Manpreet Kaur, who alleged that during an AAP protest against the increase in electricity tariffs, several party leaders, including Mann, incited around 750-800 party workers to march towards then Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh's residence in Sector 2, Chandigarh. The police alleged that the protesters tried to breach barricades and resorted to stone-pelting after the use of water cannon, resulting in simple injuries to several police personnel.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.