NEW DELHI: Fearing arrest for his remarks against the Muslim community, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Pilibhit, Varun Gandhi, obtained anticipatory bail from the Delhi High Court yesterday.
The court gave him anticipatory bail till March 27 in the criminal case filed against him on the directions of the Election Commission over his alleged anti-Muslim speeches.
Justice Reva Khetrapal granted anticipatory bail after lawyers argued that the provision for anticipatory bail wasn’t available in Uttar Pradesh. The candidate from Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls was asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs.50,000.
Appearing for Varun Gandhi, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra said his client apprehended arrest in Delhi and had come to the high court. Varun also gave his reply to an Election Commission notice that his speeches in Pilibhit were not intended to spark communal ill-will and reiterated that the tapes were doctored.
His lawyers argued in the reply that tapes of the alleged hate-Muslim inflammatory speeches had been tampered with and that they were not intended to incite communal feelings.
Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami had already made it clear that the onus of proving that the video CD — containing the inflammatory hate speech — was tampered with rests with Varun Gandhi himself.
“We have seen the videos. It is for Varun to prove that it has been tampered with. The question of disqualification arises only when nomination starts,” Gopalaswami said Thursday in Kolkata where he is overseeing poll arrangements.
Varun, the son of the late Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi, has been in the eye of a storm since the emergence of a CD showing him making a number of communally inflammatory speeches. Even his own party, the BJP, has distanced itself from him, while the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist have asked that his nomination be withdrawn.
The first information report (FIR) against Varun was filed at Barkheda Police Station in Pilibhit under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 125 of the Representation of the People Act.
Varun, who is planning to make his electoral debut this year, has alleged that he was part of a conspiracy to spoil his political career and tarnish his secular image.
— With input from agencies
