High court rejects review petition in Narendra Modi selfie case

Ahmedabad

The Gujarat high court today rejected a revision petition demanding admitting a plea against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for alleged breach of the model code of conduct by clicking a selfie with the party symbol lotus and addressing media near a polling booth area in Ranip in Ahmedabad soon after casting his vote during the Loksabha election in 2014 as the then chief minister of the state.

Two lower courts and the crime branch of Ahmedabad police (the investigating agency) had already given clean chit to Mr. Modi.

Justice J B Pardiwala had completed the hearing on the petition on October 27 and reserved the verdict for pronouncing today. Uphelding the lower court verdict he rejected the review petition filed by former Aam Aadmi Party activist Nishant Varma today.

On the last date Advocate General Kamal Trivedi appearing on behalf of the state government had said that the lower courts have not found any merit in the case and accepted the closure report of the investigating agency i e the crime branch of Ahmedabad police. So the revision petition should not be admitted.

Counsel of the petitioner and former Aam Aadmi Party activist Nishant Varma whose complaint in this regard was earlier rejected by a local court on May 11 this year, Mr K R Koshti pressed his points for admitting the matter that day.

In his petition Varma had requested addition of charges against Mr. Modi for his gesture on the poll day ie April 30, 2014.

The case assumed special importance as in case of admission of the petition a summon would have been issued to the prime minister.

The matter was earlier in the court of Justice G R Udhwani who recused himself from the case on October 6. He had on the earlier date of September 28 recalled his order minutes after admitting the matter.

On the instruction from the Election Commission to the state government, the crime branch had lodged two separate complaints in the selfie case but later gave clean chits to Mr. Modi. Varma had demanded to add more charges apart from section 126 of the Representation of People Act as directed by the EC. He wanted various provisions of Indian Penal Code to be invoked against the then chief minister of Gujarat. He first approached the Ranip police and then moved the court. He later raised the issue of the closure report of the crime branch also. Chief judicial magistrate S R Singh dismissed Varma’s plea by saying that the metropolitan court had rightly upheld the closure report. ‘This court is of the opinion that there is no material substance against the accused and therefore the present proceedings should be dropped,’ the magisterial court had said.

– DeshGujarat