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| Court reserves order on complaint against PM and Sonia | | |
NEW DELHI, JUL 24
A Delhi court today reserved its order for July 28 on the maintainability of a complaint filed against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi for allegedly hosting a dinner party to induce voters for the Presidential poll.
After hearing detailed arguments on the maintainability of the complaint whether prima-facie case was made out against the leaders, Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Bansal reserved the order for July 28, the next date of hearing.
Earlier, the complainant's counsel P N Lekhi sought issuance of summons against the Prime Minister and the UPA Chairperson and various others saying "the court has to look at the alleged offence of inducing voters of Presidential election by hosting a dinner party for them at a five-star hotel here."
"Please do not look at the list of the accused persons. First time, a complaint, for election offences, has been filed under various provisions of the IPC," senior advocate Lekhi said, making it clear that the election of Pratibha Patil has not been challenged.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) P P Malhotra, citing constitutional provisions, countered the arguments and said "any dispute regarding election of President and Vice-President can only be heard by the Supreme Court and other courts, including the High Courts, have no rights to entertain such applications/complaints."
"These acts are resorted to for gaining cheap publicity," ASG said.
"The presence of ASG Malhotra is sufficient to establish that there is prima-facie case against the accused," Lekhi said, adding that this complaint was not an election petition and it had nothing to do with President Patil.
"This is confined to the offence of offering a treat to electors of the Presidential poll which is duly covered under section 171E of the IPC," he said.
Earlier, a complaint was filed by a lawyer Ravinder Kumar seeking a direction to Delhi Police to register an FIR under various sections including 171B (inducing a person to exercise any electoral right) and 171E (bribery) of the IPC.
Besides Gandhi and the prime minister, the complainant sought prosecution of CPI-M leader Prakash Karat, CPI leader A B Bardhan, the Delhi Police Commissioner, the DCP and the SHO of Chanakyapuri Police station.
A news report of the dinner party, which was hosted on the evening of July 17 at Hotel Ashok for allegedly garnering support for UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil, has also been annexed with the complaint.
Those who attended the dinner included Lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan, Praful Patel and A Ramdoss, he alleged.
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