Rejecting Varun Gandhi's charge that he was booked under NSA due to political reasons, the UP Government told the SC that his recent speeches had communal overtones
Rejecting Varun Gandhi's charge that he was booked under NSA due to political reasons, the UP Government on Saturday told the Supreme Court that his recent speeches in Pilibhit had communal overtones and blamed the BJP candidate for the chaos on the day of his surrender.
In its 35-page response to the notice issued by the apex court on April 2, the state government said the inflammatory statement by Varun and the manner in which he
surrendered for the cases registered against him amount to the breach of public order warranting invocation of the National Security Act against him.
The state government and the District Magistrate of Pilibhit said the NSA was invoked against Varun for his speeches "having communal overtones and the chaos created by
him while surrendering before a court on March 28".
The state government contended that there was no need for the authority to supply entire material including the CDs of the speeches and events relating to Varun's surrender for booking him under NSA. It denied the allegation that NSA was imposed against him with any political motive or to sabotage his electoral debut.
The apex court will hear the matter on April 13. Varun, 29, had moved the court challenging his detention under NSA for his alleged hate speeches in Pilibhit last month. He was taken to the Piliibhit district jail and later shifted to Etah jail for security reasons.
The apex court had sought a response from the UP government after Varun's counsel and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and Sourav Kirpal had alleged that the District
Magistrate slapped the NSA without authority.
They contended that the state government had not passed any order as required under the law for the local administration to take such a measure and accused the District
Magistrate of acting independently. Rohtagi had said a large number of documents which formed the ground for detention under the NSA were not supplied to Varun.
In his petition, the BJP leader had alleged that the NSA was slapped against him to sabotage his electoral debut. Varun alleged he was detained under NSA as Uttar Pradesh government apprehended that he will be released on bail in the cases registered against him for the alleged hate speeches.
He alleged that the breach of peace on the day of surrender was due to brutality and excesses by the police. Varun's counsel had sought relief for him to contest the election from Pilibhit where the last date for filing nomination papers is April 16. He had supported his contention by drawing the attention of the bench that the apex court had said in a judgement that in cases of NSA, the High Court has the power to grant interim bail.
Rohatgi had said if interim relief was not granted immediately, Varun's petition would become infructous as the elections would be over by May and he has to remain under
detention for a minimum of three months under NSA.
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