HC upholds trial court order refusing to lodge FIR against AAP

The Delhi High Court today refused to quash a trial court decision declining to order lodging of an FIR against Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others for allegedly dishonoring the national flag during a protest outside Tihar jail when Arvind Kejriwal was sent to prison for not furnishing a bail bond in May 2014.
Justice Suresh Kait upheld the order of the trial court which instead of directing lodging of an FIR had asked the petitioner to lead pre-summoning evidence to his complaint against the AAP leaders.
The high court said the trial court has rightly refused to order registration of an FIR, so there is no ground for interference with that.

The court said petitioner Society For Voice of Human Rights and Justice has photographs and video regarding the alleged clash between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers and the police, so these can be produced before the trial court.
It said no purpose would be served to direct fresh probe into the incident in which AAP leaders Rakhi Birla and Sanjay Singh besides others were allegedly seen dishonouring the national flag.
The order came on a plea filed against the trial court's May last year order with regard to the protest in which the AAP leaders were allegedly seen raising national flag outside Tihar jail and were caught on camera allegedly disrespecting the flag.

Kejriwal was arrested on May 21, 2014 and sent to Tihar Jail by a Delhi court after he refused to furnish bail bond in a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by BJP leader Nitin Gadkari.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed outside Tihar jail on May 21, 2014 evening when clashes broke out between AAP supporters and Delhi Police.
Kejriwal was summoned as an accused by the court in the complaint in which Gadkari had alleged he was defamed by the AAP leader, who had included his name in the party's list of "India's most corrupt".
The court had granted bail to Kejriwal saying the offence of defamation under section 500 of the IPC is bailable and asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 10,000 and a surety of the like amount.

He, however, was taken into custody after he had refused to give a bail bond saying the case is politically motivated and he does not wish to seek bail.