Delhi court seeks ATR on plea against Aiyar

New Delhi [India], Jan 5 (ANI): The Saket court in Delhi on Thursday sought an action taken report (ATR) from police on a plea seeking registration of a sedition case against suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar for hosting Pakistani officials at his residence.

Metropolitan Magistrate Manika has fixed the next date of hearing in the case on April 7.

Earlier on December 14, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Supreme Court lawyer Ajay Agrawal wrote to the National Investigative Agency (NIA) requesting them to register an FIR against Aiyar and other Congress leaders for allegedly attended a meeting with the Pakistani officials.

Agrawal, in his letter, stated that the meeting was held to destabilise the ruling government and affect the Gujarat Assembly elections as the very next day Congress leaders and the host of the meeting, Aiyar, levelled 'Neech Aadmi' remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The meeting was allegedly attended by former vice-president Hamid Ansari, High Commissioner of Pakistan to India Sohail Mahmood, Khurshid Kasoori, Indian bureaucrats and other officials.

"The act is exciting hatred towards the elected government and the person doing it and the persons involved in a conspiracy should be booked under Section 124 (A) (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," he stated.

The petitioner added that the meeting took place in a secretive manner with a secret agenda, which is purely 'anti-national' in its original character, to destabilise the ruling government and affect the Gujarat Assembly elections.

Earlier on December 11, Dr Singh quashed the accusation and said, "I am deeply pained and anguished by the falsehood and canards being spread to score political points in a lost cause by none less than Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi. Fearing imminent defeat in Gujarat, the desperation of Prime Minister to hurl every abuse and latch on to every straw is palpable."

Terming it a lie, Singh issued a clarification as follows, "I reject the innuendos and falsehoods as I did not discuss Gujarat elections with anyone else at the dinner hosted by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar as alleged by Shri Modi. Nor was the Gujarat issue raised by anyone else present at the dinner." (ANI)