HC notice to police on Swamy's plea to quash FIR

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today sought response from the police on a plea of Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy seeking quashing of an FIR lodged against him for writing an "inflammatory" article in a Mumbai daily in 2011.

Issuing notice to Delhi Police, Justice Kailash Gambhir sought its response by August 26 on Swamy's plea for quashing of the FIR on the ground that "whatever investigation has been done by the police in past 21 months, no material has been found which would cause communal disharmony in society".

A case was filed against Swamy in October 2011 by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police, on a complaint from the National Commission for Minorities, for writing in July 2011 the alleged inflammatory article which the complaint said was intended to spread communal enmity.

Appearing for Swamy, senior advocate KTS Tulsi submitted before the court that, "In 2005, Swamy had written a book on terrorism in India and the content of the book did not cause any sort of communal disturbance but writing an article, which is based on the book, became offensive."

"The investigation is going on from past 21 months and no case has been made out so far," the counsel also argued.

To this argument, Justice Gambhir said, "These kind of expressions cannot be expected from you as you are a political leader, economist and also an educationist," and issued notice to police.

Swamy was granted anticipatory bail in January 2012 by the high court after he had given an undertaking in the court that he would refrain from writing such articles in future.

Earlier, Swamy's counsel had argued that this case was lodged to harass his client as he (Swamy) had exposed the 2G scam against the government.