The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday stayed the criminal proceedings initiated in connection with an April 10 tweet put out by BJP's National IT wing head, Amit Malviya allegedly mocking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
While adjourning a plea filed by Malviya to quash the criminal proceedings to July 10 on a request by the State for more time to respond, Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur directed,
The development comes a day after Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati stayed the FIR registered against BJP National President JP Nadda who had retweeted Malviya's tweet.
On April 10, while quoting an extract from an article by ThePrint, Malviya had raised questions regarding the veracity of claims that Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi's warnings regarding COVID-19 had led to the testing of 22 lakh people in Rajasthan's Bhilwara.
In his tweet Malviya had stated, "Sonia Gandhi claims Bhilwara tested 22 lakh people due to Rahul's warning! Wherever there is Rahul (Gandhi), can exaggeration and maths blunder be behind?"
A retweet of this tweet by BJP President Nadda prompted a Hanumangarh Congress worker to file a complaint, terming the tweet to be disparaging.
On Tuesday, Nadda asserted that he had merely retweeted Malviya's tweet and that he had no personal role to play. Nadda added that the tweet was made from Malviya's personal account and not from the BJP's official twitter handle.
In view of these submissions, the High Court yesterday stayed the FIR against Nadda, observing that,
"... this Court prima-facie finds that the tweet has been made by Shri Amit Malviya and the present petitioner has no role in tweeting the information in question. The tweet is apparently from the private tweeting handle of Shri Amit Malviya, and therefore, no role at this stage seems to be made out against the present petitioner."
