Sambit Patra booked on charge of hurting religious feelings

An FIR was registered on Monday against BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra here in Chhattisgarh under the charges of promoting enmity between different groups and hurting religious feelings, police said. "The case was registered this evening against Patra at Civil Lines police station based on a complaint lodged by Poornachand Padhi. Probe is underway," Raipur Superintendent of Police Arif Sheikh told PTI.

Padhi, who heads Chhattisgarh Youth Congress, referred to a tweet of Patra posted on May 10. The complainant claimed that Patra leveled false allegations against former Prime Ministers Jawahar Lal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi in connection with the Kashmir issue, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and Bofors scam, as per the FIR.

The two former PMs were never convicted in any case of corruption or riots, Padhi stated in his complaint. While the country is battling COVID-19, the act of tweeting such content on social platforms is not only prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious groups, communities but is likely to disturb the public tranquillity, Padhi stated.

The case was registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 505(2)(statements conducing to public mischief) and 298 (uttering, words, etc. with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the IPC, police said.

Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh BJP spokesperson Sanjay Shrivastav accused the ruling Congress of misusing the state machinery to lodge FIR against leaders of the saffron party.