Punjab and Haryana High Court stays arrest of former AAP leader Kumar Vishwas

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday stayed the arrest of former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and poet Kumar Vishwas in connection with a case of allegedly making ‘inflammatory statements’ against Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal accusing him of having links with ‘separatist elements’.

Senior advocate Chetan Mittal, counsel for Mr. Vishwas, told The Hindu that the High Court had put a stay on the arrest of Mr. Vishwas, and the detailed order was awaited.

Punjab police on April 12 registered a case at Rupnagar’s Sadar police station against Mr. Vishwas under different Sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place etc), 505 (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), besides Section 125 of the Representation of People Act (Promoting enmity between classes in connection with election).

Punjab police also served notice to Mr. Vishwas to join the investigation, following which he approached the High Court, seeking quashing of the FIR against him. In his petition, Mr. Vishwas submitted that the FIR was a clear abuse of the process of law. Also, the State machinery was being ‘misused for political vengeance’. It added that the FIR and the proceedings emanating therefrom were malafide and a blatant attempt to breach the fundamental right of the petitioner of freedom to speech. The manner in which the investigating agency was proceeding, it was apparent that the agency was trying to curtail the liberty of the petitioner by adopting a procedure unknown to law, said the petition.

Mr. Vishwas, during the high-voltage election campaign for the 2022 Punjab Assembly election had accused Mr. Kejriwal of supporting separatists.

The Punjab police had registered the case against Mr. Vishwas on a complaint of an AAP supporter, in which it was alleged that while he visited villages with party supporters to address the grievances of the people, he was stopped by some unidentified masked persons who called them ‘Khalistani’, and such incidents were constantly occurring. The complaint added that it all started after Mr. Vishwas made ‘inflammatory statements’ against Mr. Kejriwal on news channels and social media platforms, accusing the AAP of having links with ‘separatist elements’.