New Delhi, Sep 7: A Delhi court has dismissed as being "part of political vendetta" a plea to summon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi as witnesses in a complaint case filed against Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his alleged "Hindu terror" remarks made at Jaipur.
While dismissing the plea, Metropolitan Magistrate Harun Pratap also imposed a cost of Rs 1,000 on complainant, an RTI activist.
The plea had also sought to call senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar and Chandrabhan of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress as witnesses.
The court, however, termed the application "totally frivolous" and "part of personal vendetta as reflected in the utterings of the complainant himself in the court whereby he has shown his disregard and angst towards the political system of the country and especially the present government."
The magistrate, who had earlier directed the complainant to show the relevancy to call the leaders as witnesses, also noted in his order that the witnesses sought to be summoned are senior Congress leaders who are stated to be relevant in this case.
The purpose as shown by the complainant for summoning them as witnesses is not a fit ground in the view of the court as personal opinion of any person is neither relevant nor sufficient to decide the factum of alleged offence itself.
"Moreover, since the voice recording of Shinde has already been brought on record alongwith newspaper clippings containing the contents of alleged speech, hence the court has no hesitation in hereby arriving at the finding that the summoning of the witnesses is highly irrelevant and not required to arrive at a just decision in this case," the court said.
The complainant had earlier sought registration of an FIR against Shinde for his alleged comments during the AICC meet at Jaipur in January.
The court had, however, dismissed the plea for registration of the FIR, but had allowed the complainant to lead evidence in support of his allegations in the private complaint.
Shinde had at the AICC meet on January 20 said, "Reports have come during investigation that BJP and RSS conduct terror training camps to spread terrorism...Bombs were planted in Samjhauta express, Mecca Masjid and also a blast was carried out in Malegaon."
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