Police report sought on ‘inflammatory’ 2020 post by Mishra

New Delhi: A Delhi court sought a police report on Thursday on law minister Kapil Mishra's alleged inflammatory post on Twitter (now X), for which he was booked in the run-up to the 2020 Delhi assembly elections.
The court of additional chief judicial magistrate Vaibhav Chaurasia directed the deputy commissioner of police of Northwest district to get details about the post from the social media platform. The next hearing of the matter is on April 8. Mishra was granted exemption from appearance for Thursday's hearing.
On March 18, Delhi High Court refused to immediately stay trial court proceedings against the law minister. The high court bench, observing that the matter required consideration, issued a notice on the plea directing Delhi Police to file its response within four weeks. The high court will hear the matter next on May 19.
Earlier, on March 7, a Delhi court declined to junk the proceedings against Mishra and quash the summons issued to him, observing that his alleged remarks appeared "a brazen attempt to promote enmity on the grounds of religion". The court of special judge Jitendra Singh said,
"The word ‘Pakistan' is very skilfully weaved in his alleged statements by the revisionist to spew hatred, careless about communal polarisation that might ensue in the election campaign, only to garner votes."
The minister challenged the cognisance and summons of the trial court of June 22, 2024, in a case related to an alleged violation of the election model code of conduct in 2020. That year, Delhi Police had lodged an FIR against Mishra over his controversial tweet in which he likened the assembly elections to an India versus Pakistan contest.
On the directions of the poll authorities, the FIR was filed at Model Town police station under Section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The allegations against the minister were that he made objectionable statements in the electronic media such as "Delhi mein chhote chhote Pakistan bane", "Shaheen Bagh mein Pak ki entry" in Jan 2020 and also posted tweets with identical expressions.